Google Loons : Balloon Powered Internet Access via Stratosphere

Abstract

The service of Internet Service Providers (ISP) connect us to the global network via Internet services but is reachable to only one out of three in the world’s population. The rest of the Population are not able to get internet access. It is not an easy task to lay the telecommunication lines all around the world to provide internet connection everywhere. As we area aware of that the developing nation cannot afford such a huge sum of money to lay fiber cables, this will not result to a productful solution. Google proposed the project Loon being developed for providing internet access to remote and rural areas. This project is a network of balloons floating in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 20-30 km to create an aerial wireless network with up to 3G-like speeds. In the Loon network, balloons travel around the earth bringing access points to the users. While energy on the balloons cannot be supplied by stable power source or by replacing batteries frequently, the balloons can harvest energy from natural energy sources, e.g. solar energy, or from radio frequency energy by equipping with appropriate circuits. This paper covers the working and designing of Loon balloons, the Loon’s Technology, and its advantages in various fields.