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Balloon beams broadband internet from stratosphere
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A blisteringly fast data downlink provided by a stratospheric balloon
floating 24,000 metres above the Earth has been tested for the first
time. The helium balloon was tested on 31 August for several hours.
Analysis now shows the test was a success and sent data to the ground at
1.25 gigabits per second, thousands of times the capacity of a home
broadband internet connection.
The test craft was developed by the Capanina Consortium ? 14 European
academic and industry partners funded mainly by the European Union. They
hope the craft may be able to provide communications in disaster zones
or low-cost internet access in the developing world.
The stratospheric craft was equipped with two communication systems: a
high power radio antenna and an ultra-high-speed optical communications
system. The balloon's radio link was based on the 802.11b protocol. For
the balloon test, powerful millimetre-frequency radio antennas were
used, to send the signal up to 60 km. This link was used to transmit
data rates of up to 11Mbits/sec.
New Scientist - October 19, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/ictweekly/ref.php?nid=2360--
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J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com tom at jtjohnson.com
"He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense."
-John McCarthy, Stanford University mathematician
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