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Paper on Google's Project "Loon for all"
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A DIMINUTIVE NOTE ON PROJECT LOONV.Prasanna KumarDiploma 2nd Year
Computer Science & EngineeringArjun College of Technology & Sciences
ABSTRACT
Project Loon is a newly started research & development project which has been developed by Google with the mission of providing Internet access to remote areas. This Project Loon is designed with the technology which is implementing to avoid usage of expensive fiber cables that should be installed underground to allow users to connect internet. This Project Loon uses balloons which are super pressured filled with helium; each balloon’s electronics are powered by a collection of solar panels that sits between the envelope and hardware. For a developing country like India with vast usage of different connectivity, this is one of the very essential elements forwards digital era.
Keywords: Internet; Digital Era; Google; Project Loon;
1. INTRODUCTION
If we reach the history of technology, we can have a look at the evolution in it. In Internet Technology there are lots of advancements. It became so easy to do anything with Internet which playing a key role. But still three third of the world’s population is not connected to the internet due to several problems which can be either it is a rural area or a mountain region. Here,
if we come to other side of the coin, the evolution of technology made more people to use internet from cables, fibers to portable devices, from portable devices to wireless networks. Though there is a vast development in technology still man is facing some issues wherever the natural disasters, other accidents take place at a particular area which will completely disconnects the connectivity with rest of the world. So from these problems, one thought came out from Google which might solve all the above discussed problems of man. It is “Project Loon” which powers every region on earth with internet service. By this, the world still becomes smaller. No matter where the place is, no matter how height the region is and no matter if any natural disaster occurs, but Project Loon is there to connect the entire world with its valuable Loon service. It is one of the most wonderful ideas taken up by the Google and it is going on till at present [1].
Figure 1: Google Project Loon
2. OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The main objectives of study in this paper are
i. To explore the brief introduction of the Project Loon.
ii. To give pithy information of the working of the Project Loon.
iii. To survey the Project Loon.
iv. To investigate the Future of Project Loon which help the whole world as ‘conclusion’.
3. METHODOLOGY
The present paper has referred the secondary data available on the internet and referred some journals to get the brief information on the valuable invention by Google known as Project Loon.
4. EXPLORATION OF THE
OBJECTIVES
i. THE BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF THE PROJECT LOON
Project Loon is network of the balloons travelling on the border of space, intended to connect people in rural and remote areas. In the case of satellite systems, the satellite is rotating over the earth from a fixed point, but in the case of the Project Loon, the loons are floating in the stratosphere following its east-west winds across the globe. While Google is able to control it to a limited extent of their speed, spacing and direction of travel by moving the balloons up and down into different air currents. The loons
largely go to the wind flowing direction. You can think the loon as a mobile network in reverse. Instead of having a fixed grid of towers among which millions of subscribers are moving. Loon will be having a fixed grid of subscribers while the towers move from place to place overhead [8].
Consequently, Project Loon has to deal with many of the same problems faced by the mobile operators in getting the Loon to work. One of those problems is flexibility. In mobile network the speed, capacity, and network performance tend to suffer as you and your Smartphone move further away from the network. In the case of Loon, homes and business will stay put on the network but loon transmitters will appear and disappear over the horizon, handing off their signals to the next approaching balloon. That means your loon connection will be in constant state of topological flux, continuously moving from cell center to cell edge. Here the Loon engineers have created a reflecting plate in its equipment which will capture the signals even the transmitter path is at an extreme obtuse angle [3].
Figure 2: Snapshot of Project Loon
ii. WORKING PROCESS OF PROJECT LOON
Project Loon is of network of balloons travelling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disaster. Most communications satellites are following the earth’s rotation over the same fixed point on the planet surface. But in the case of Loon, the balloons are floating in the stratosphere following its east-west winds across the globe. While Google will be able to control to a limited extent their spacing, speed and direction of travel by moving the balloons up and down into different air currents, the balloons will largely go where the winds take them. You can think of Loon as a mobile network in reverse. Consequently, Project Loon has to deal with many of the same problems faced by mobile operators in getting Loon to work. One of those problems is resilience. In the mobile network, speed, capacity and network performance tend to suffer as you and your smart phone move further away from the tower. In the case of Loon, homes and businesses will stay put but Loon transmitters will appear and disappear over the horizon, handing off their signals to the next approaching balloon. That means your Loon connection will be in constant state of topological flux, continuously moving from cell centre to cell edge. The design results in uniform signal strength regardless of whether balloon is directly over your home or on the horizon [2].
iii. HOW LOON WORKS???
Project Loon balloons travel around 20 km above the earth’s surface in the stratosphere and generally steady and slow-moving at between 5 and 20 mph, and each layer of wind varies in direction and magnitude. Project Loon uses software algorithms to determine where its balloon needs to go then moves each one into a layer of wind blowing in the right direction. By moving with the wind, the balloons can be arranged to form one large communications network. These massive structures are 15-meters wide and made a from polyethylene film that's only three times thicker than a supermarket carrier bag, but still thick enough to withstand high altitude air pressures without exploding. However, the responsibility of the balloon, and its helium gas filling, is to get the real tech wizardry in the air and keep it there. Each unit carries a mini Linux-based computer, toting the all-important Wi-Fi radios, GPS and several sensors recording air temperature, altitude and speed of movement. All of this information is sent to Google's Command Centre on the ground below where the each balloon can be controlled to a certain degree. Once it has reached the altitude of 20km (65,000ft), it's will end its ascent. Then, as Google explains: "Signals are transmitted from the balloons to a specialized Internet antenna mounted to the side of a home or workplace that use radio frequency technology. The Internet antenna is connected to a consumer grade router. Web traffic that travels through the balloon network is ultimately relayed to ground stations, where it's connected to pre-existing Internet infrastructure, like fiber cables and our local telecommunications partners. At stratospheric altitudes which are twice as high as commercial aircraft fly, so there'll be no unfortunate accidents. There wind currents tend to move in very
Figure 3: Working Process of Project Loon
specific directions. Google's Loon uses a custom-built, solar powered pump to carefully inflate or deflate the balloon remotely from the ground. The idea is that each balloon rises and falls to the required height in order to move in the required direction at the required speed. From there, they're like sailboats, which are designed and eventually be able to stay in the air for 100 days at a time. When they reach the end of their shift, they can be directed to a designated rescue centers around the world and replaced. Each balloon is networked to one another with a radio transceiver as in a mesh, designed to ensure signal reliability. A second transceiver keeps the balloon in contact with a network station on the ground and beams an Internet signal to specialized antennas that can be placed on homes, much like a very small satellite TV receiver. There is also a back-up transceiver and a GPS on each balloon, so Google can monitor a balloon's location. And each balloon will carry weather instruments, too. A solar collector powers the balloon’s systems during the day, and also charges a battery for night-time use. The balloons maintain their positions by reading the predictable air currents that occur at their high altitude and slightly adjusting their heights to stay in roughly the same area [9].
CONCLUSION:
The system is still just experimental by Google, but everyone believes it will eventually bring Internet access to many parts of the world where people have little or no connectivity. They are lower cost and less roundtrip time than a satellite, and, given enough of these in the air at any given moment in any given location, higher capacity via the multiplicative effect associated with wireless meshes. Though some issues are rising against project. The
project is now working out how to make the balloons stay in the area where they're wanted. Not surprisingly, it's solving this with “some complex algorithms and lots of computing power”. Project Loon is now looking expand the pilot in countries at the same latitude as New Zealand. Might be Google can come with reliable cost. If this project went succeeded the world is going to experience new things.
REFERENCES
[1]. IJCAE, Special Issue, December 2013, 203-205.
[2]. Marc Petron [email protected], engadget.com
[3]. John DixEditor in [email protected], networkworld.com
[4]. Paul McNamaraOnline News [email protected]
[5]. En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Loon[6]. http://www.google.com/loon/[7]. www.googleimages.com/projectloon/[8]. Wisconsin Project loon watch Report,
University of Minnesota.[9]. Loon Book,
ISBN: 0878390405, 9780878390403North Star Press.
Author Profile
V.Prasanna Kumar is studying Diploma 2nd year in Computer Science & Engineering Dep. from Arjun College of Technology & Sciences as
(2014-16 batch) who presented several papers in Seminars, Presentations and National Conferences which are being published in International Journal. Presently working as a Founder, Managing Director of a virtual organization named APT Solutions which provides its services to several Corporate & Educational Clienteles.
