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| © Mark Blinch / Reuters |
Google
is reportedly testing a new internet connectivity program called Project
Skybender. The project involves solar drones that use millimeter radio waves to
allow the transmission of gigabits of data.
The
search giant is said to be using drones to beam internet to ground users, with
testing beginning last summer at New Mexico’s Spaceport America, according to
Guardian sources (see story below). Under the program, solar drones stay afloat
for long periods of time and use millimeter radio waves to transmit gigabits of
data “up to 40 times more than today’s 4G LTE systems.”
The
Guardian reported that Google foresees a future of thousands of high-altitude,
“self-flying aircraft delivering internet access around the world.”
Millimeter
waves represent the new front for wireless communication as the lower
frequencies are almost used up, leading to spectrum shortages and challenges.
Both Facebook and Google have been testing aerial devices to provide reliable
wireless internet access in remote locations. Facebook itself has acquired
Aquila, a solar-powered drone armed with Wi-Fi lasers, while Google had Project
Loon, which employs huge floating balloons with transmitters.
Exploiting
the higher frequencies would take the pressure off the lower frequencies, and
expand wireless communications into the outer limits of radio technology, according to
Electronic Design.
Millimeter
waves occupy the frequency range of 30 gigahertz (microwave) to 300 gigahertz
(infrared). Exploiting them would permit high digital data rates. Currently,
the frequency waves are used in radio astronomy or remote sensing. In the lower
frequencies, transmission rates are limited to 1 gigabyte, but in the
millimeter-wave range, they could reach 10 gigabytes or more.
The
drawback with millimeter waves is their limited range. The shorter the
wavelength, the shorter the transmission range, and in this case it could limit
the spread to 32 miles (10 meters). The loss can be overcome with “good
receiver sensitivity, high transmit power, and high antenna gains” according to
Electronic Design.
Another
drawback is atmosphere, such as ran, fog and any moisture in the air, which can
absorb millimeter waves and restrict their range. High-gain antennas are one
solution.
Other organizations have
already explored the millimeter wave technology. DARPA, the researcher of the
US military, began a program called Mobile Hotspots in 2014, designed to
provide one gigabit per second internet communications for troops operating in
remote areas.
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| Titan Aerospace's Solara, a company and product acquired by Google. Google has been using these aircraft to test high-speed internet transmitted from the air. (Titan Aerospace) |
Project Skybender:
Google's Secretive 5G Internet Drone Tests Revealed
Trials at New Mexico’s
Spaceport Authority are using new millimetre wave technology to deliver data
from drones – potentially 40 times faster than 4G
Google
is testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America in New Mexico to explore
ways to deliver high-speed internet from the air, the Guardian has learned.
In
a secretive project codenamed SkyBender, the technology giant built several
prototype transceivers at the isolated spaceport last summer, and is testing
them with multiple drones, according to documents obtained under public records
laws.
In
order to house the drones and support aircraft, Google is temporarily using
15,000 square feet of hangar space in the glamorous Gateway to Space terminal
designed by Norman Foster for the much-delayed Virgin Galactic
spaceflights.
The
tech company has also installed its own dedicated flight control centre in the
nearby Spaceflight Operations Center, separate from the terminal.
Based
out of the site near the town called Truth or Consequences, Project SkyBender
is using drones to experiment with millimetre-wave radio transmissions, one of
the technologies that could underpin next generation 5G wireless internet access. High frequency millimetre waves can
theoretically transmit gigabits of data every second, up to 40 times more than
today’s 4G LTE systems. Google ultimately envisages thousands of high altitude
“self-flying aircraft” delivering internet access around the world.
“The
huge advantage of millimetre wave is access to new spectrum because the
existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded. It’s packed and there’s nowhere
else to go,” says Jacques Rudell, a professor of electrical engineering at the
University of Washington in Seattle and specialist in this technology.
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|
The
flight control office at the New Mexico Spaceport Center where Google has been
testing solar-powered drones. Photograph: New Mexico Spaceport Authority
|
Google's
drones have exclusive use of the Spaceport’s runway and will even venture above
a neighbouring missile range
However,
millimetre wave transmissions have a much shorter range than mobile phone
signals. A broadcast at 28GHz, the frequency Google is testing at Spaceport
America, would fade out in around a tenth the distance of a 4G phone signal. To
get millimetre wave working from a high-flying drone, Google needs to
experiment with focused transmissions from a so-called phased array. “This is
very difficult, very complex and burns a lot of power,” Rudell says.
The
SkyBender system is being tested with an “optionally piloted” aircraft called Centaur as well as solar-powered drones made by Google Titan, a division
formed when Google acquired New Mexico startup Titan Aerospace in 2014. Titan
built high-altitude solar-powered drones with wingspans of up to 50 metres.
Emails
between Spaceport America and Google project managers reveal that the aircraft
have exclusive use of the Spaceport’s runway during the tests and will even
venture above the neighbouring White Sands Missile Range.
Google
spent several months last summer building two communication installations on
concrete pads at Spaceport America. Project SkyBender is part of the
little-known Google Access team, which also includes Project Loon, a plan to deliver wireless internet using unpowered balloons floating
through the stratosphere.
One
of the millimetre wave transceivers was located near Spaceport America’s
Spaceport Operations Centre (SOC), and the other four miles away at the
Vertical Launch Area (VLA), although Google’s plans did not involve any
rockets. Google also established a repeater tower and numerous other sites
around the Spaceport, presumably to test millimetre wave reception.
Both
installations have cabinets full of computer servers and other electronics,
while the pad at the SOC required a concrete base to support a dish antenna
nearly eight feet across, according to a separate filing with the Federal
Communications Commissions (FCC).
Work
did not proceed smoothly, however. At one point in late August, a lorry showed
up at 10.30pm, causing the Spaceport America team to complain to Google: “We
have no loading dock and no means to remove a pallet … from the middle of the
truck.” The lorry was turned away without making its delivery.
Later,
components were installed upside down or supplied by Google without the
necessary shelves, nuts and bolts. Near the end of the build in October, Mike
Bashore, information systems manager at Spaceport America, even emailed to his
Google contact, “We want to run out to Home Depot for grounding straps.” These
are needed to protect sensitive electronics from static electricity. The
nearest Home Depot hardware shop is over 100 miles from the Spaceport.
Google
is not the first organization to work with drones and millimetre wave
technology. In 2014, DARPA, the research arm of the US military, announced a
program called Mobile
Hotspots to make a fleet of drones that could provide one gigabit per
second communications for troops operating in remote areas.
Google
has permission from the FCC to continue its tests in New Mexico until July.
Spaceport America will be glad of the US$300,000 SkyBender tests, as Virgin
Galactic virtually
mothballed its terminal following the 2014 crash of its prototype
SpaceShipTwo vehicle in California. Christine Anderson, chief executive officer
of Spaceport America, admits that the facility is now running out of money.
“We
are transitioning to supporting all aspects of the spaceport from our
operational budget, as the [state] bonds have been spent except for the amount
reserved for the southern road,” she wrote in a blog post earlier this month.
“We are asking the legislature for US$2.8m ... We appreciate that our request is
a lot of money, but we also feel that it is a relatively small amount to
protect the state’s US$218.5m investment already made in the new and exciting
commercial space industry.”
Google
is paying Virgin Galactic US$1,000 a day for the use of a hangar in the Gateway
to Space building, but had to split its SkyBender tests into two separate
flight campaigns to ease Virgin Galactic concerns. An unnamed Virgin Galactic
executive emailed Anderson before the tests to note: “We will be arranging
numerous activities around these occupancy periods, which would be impacted if
there was any [timing changes].” Google also had to promise not to take any
photographs inside the building.
Anderson
expects Virgin Galactic to unveil its new SpaceShipTwo at the Spaceport in
February, and to begin flights there in 2018.
Google
declined to comment.
Originally published in RT
(STORY 1) and (STORY 2) The Guardian
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