At Wireless Technology Park 2010, the NICT exhibited technology for "broadband communication in the sky."
"At present, mobile phones and the Internet cannot be used in airliners flying above Japan. For that to be possible, the relevant laws need to be amended. But before the laws do get amended, we've been doing R&D to make such that communication is practical at any time. Previously, the bandwidth available was limited, but now, we've developed infrastructure using TCP/IP, to enable communication at 100 Mbit/sec."
In previous long-distance communication using satellites, high frequencies were utilized, so propagation loss was high, and Internet communication wasn't possible. Now, the NICT has developed equipment that uses the millimeter band, at 43 GHz. In addition, advances in transmission technology have enabled communication between aircraft and ground stations to be supported reliably. Tests are also under way to achieve a speed of around 100 Mbps, by reducing the number of ground stations.
"Incidentally, the distance between Tokyo and Chitose is about 500 km, so only four or five ground stations are needed. Uninterrupted connection will be possible, by handing over or relaying between them."
"The most important issue is legislation that actually makes it permissible to use mobile phones and wireless LAN in airliners. We expect the Japanese authorities will do their best to make this happen. Also, when the economy improves a little, so conditions are better for the airline industry and demand from users increases, we'd like to install this equipment in airliners. Small transmitting and receiving antennas will be installed in the planes, which means that a certain amount of modification will be necessary. So ideas and collaboration from manufacturers will also be needed, as well as consent by carriers to use mobile phones and wireless LAN. We hope our system will become practical when those kinds of arrangements have been made."
Related Links :
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NICT New Generation Wireless Communications Research Center
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Wireless Technology Park 2010
