1. Emerging Stratospheric Radio - Blessing or Threat? R. Struzak Former Vice-Chair, ITU Radio Regulations Board Former Co-Chair, URSI WGE1 on Spectrum Utilization, Management and Wireless Telecommunications European Science Foundation Workshop on Active Protection of Passive Radio Services Cagliari, Sardinia, 28-29 Oct. 2004 Note: These are preliminary notes, intended only for distribution among the participants. Beware of misprints!

2. R Struzak 2 Outline Background Evolution Current projects Potential threats Conclusion Film projection

3. R Struzak 3 Warning … We will talk about predictions – about emerging technologies … But predictions may be wrong – -- even if made by the best experts…

4. R Struzak 4 My preferred prediction “Radio has no future” 1897, Lord Kelvin ( William Thomson, 1824-1907) famous British mathematician and physicist, a year after Marconi demonstrated the 1st radio transmission at 1.6 km distance

5. R Struzak 5 Humanitarian perspective Telecommunications = access to information/ knowledge infrastructures Gap “Information-rich vs. information- poor” UN Secretary General, Report 2000 (http://www.un.org/millennium/sg/report/full.htm)http://www.un.org/millennium/sg/report/full.htm World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) 2003, 2005 (http://www.itu.int/wsis)http://www.itu.int/wsis

6. R Struzak 6 Business perspective Telecommunications = big business –must grow continuously (according to current economic ideology) Traditional (wealthy) markets approach saturation –New ways and means must be found to keep it running New applications (interactive multimedia, …) New markets (poorer regions,…)

7. R Struzak 7 Sought intensively… New cheap telecommunication technologies –To satisfy military needs –To expand markets/ keep profits –To close the information gap

8. R Struzak 8 Outline Background Evolution Current projects Potential threats Conclusion Film projection

9. R Struzak 9 Focus on radio Ubiquitous - accessible at any place, any time…* Free, no right-of-way- no deployment/ installation/ maintenance… Fast: ~300’000 km/s Deployment cost & time Indestructible - no theft, snow, wind, flood, earthquake, tornado, trees… No cable production/ transport/ warehousing… *Over the Earth’s surface Radio waves carry information to fixed & mobile users at no cost

10. R Struzak 10 Focus on miniaturization Nanotechnology “Artificial insects” “Smart Dust Motes“ “Pico-satellites” Tiny, autonomous radios combined with sensors http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust/http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust/ (Last visited 16 Sept 2004) Guizzo E: Flying away; IEEE Spectrum, Jan 2004, p32-33

11. R Struzak 11 Focus on sharing Sharing resources decreases resource cost per user Shared Frequency, Time & Space –Multi-band OFDM –Ultra-wide-band (UWB) –Software-defined radio Access based on protocols & etiquette ( = good will & discipline)

12. Focus on integration Macrocell Microcell Urban In-Building Picocell Global Suburban Basic Terminal PDA Terminal Audio/Visual Terminal HAPS

13. R Struzak 13 Source: ESA - (Ariane 5) GEO satellites GEO-sat- based systems often more practical than terrestrial ones as the cost is shared by many users But even they are too expensive for some applications

14. R Struzak 14 Low-Earth-Orbit Constellations LEO satellites promised better solution + services in polar regions Teledesic: 840 (1994) or 288 (1997) active satellites –Suspended Oct. 2002 and died –http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wo od/constellations/teledesic.htmlhttp://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wo od/constellations/teledesic.html Picture from http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/constellations/teledesic.html

15. R Struzak 15 Stratospheric radio Radio station at stratospheric heights, or constellations of such stations HAPS = High-Altitude Platform Station The concept similar to that of LEO satellites but reduced to stratospheric heights C heaper than terrestrial or satellite radio –Satisfy “business” needs (profit), military needs, “humanitarian” needs (“digital gap”)

16. R Struzak 16 SHARP Source of photo: http://www.friendsofcrc.ca/SHARP/sharp.html The 1 st HAPS: Canada,17 Sept. 1987 (20 minute flight) Abandoned at the prototype phase No activities until 1997 SHARP = Stationary High Altitude Relay Platform, powered by microwaves

17. R Struzak 17 1997: Turning point 1997: the ITU Radio Regulations Board recognized HAPS as a new category of radio stations – WRC confirmed Business (investing) uncertainties/ obstacles removed

18. R Struzak 18 Outline Background Evolution Some projects Potential threats Conclusion Film projection

19. R Struzak 19 Since 1997… “Explosion” of projects Growing number of organizations involved –China, –Germany, –Hungary, –Indonesia, –Italy, –Japan, –Korea, –Slovenia, –Spain, –Switzerland, –UK, USA…

20. R Struzak 20 Why such interests in HAPS? Humanitarian perspective: 85% of the world population Business perspective: market of $53 billion »Civilian applications only; evaluation 2004

21. R Struzak 21 Potential applications Communication Exploration Observation, Environment, Navigation, Transportation, etc. Broadband data, Multimedia, Interactive services, Direct broadcasting, Video on demand, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), etc.

22. R Struzak 22 Vehicle categories Aerodyne: –Heavier-than-air aircraft deriving its lift from motion relative to surrounding air Aerostat: –Balloon or dirigible, deriving its lift from the buoyancy of surrounding air

23. R Struzak 23 Powering methods Carrying energy source –Combustion engine (Gasoline) –Nuclear engine (Thermoelectric) Receiving energy from the earth –Microwave beam –Laser beam Solar energy (day) & Fuel cells (night)

24. R Struzak 24 Helios On June 26, 2003, the Helios aircraft was lost in the Pacific Ocean (Hawaii) during tests of a new fuel cell system for overnight flight operations in the stratosphere

25. R Struzak 25 Japan’s project Constellation (dozens) of stations Operational in 2008 Long. 250 m weight 32 t., payload 1t./ 10kW each

26. R Struzak 26 “Stratospheric satellites” Model of Fully-Pressurized Balloons In Flight. Picture courtesy of NASA. Constellation of stratospheric balloons powered by solar array Could be steered/ directed to fly over specific areas Payloads up to 2 tons at ~35 km

27. R Struzak 27 StratoSat TM 400 stations/ hemisphere Projected life: 3-10 years. Costs: 10 to 100 times less than present space satellite or aircraft communications platforms »according to http://www.gaerospace.com/ (06.2002)http://www.gaerospace.com/ –Infrastructure: < $160 million –Operation: < $10 million/ year –Life-cycle cost < $400,000/ unit

28. R Struzak 28 Space Data “Swarm” - millions (?) of low-cost “weather-type” balloons moving freely with the wind Reusable payload Built from “of-the-shelf” low-cost components

29. R Struzak 29 Outline Background Evolution Some projects Potential threats Conclusion Film projection

30. R Struzak 30 Direct radiation Maximizing profit (cheap solutions) + miniaturization = no filters (or primitive filters)! Threat of excessive unintended/ out-of band radiations Treated in the ITU Radio Regulations

31. R Struzak 31 Re-radiation Terrestrial radiations reflected by the HAPS Threat of nullifying terrain shadowing and direction selectivity Not treated in the Radio Regulations HAPS

32. R Struzak 32 False signals Conductors/ semiconductors act as signal mixers when irradiated Threat of unintended “false signals” Not treated in the Radio Regulations HAPS F1F2  (n*F1 ± m*F2 ± …) n, m,… = 1, 2, …

33. R Struzak 33 Outline Background Evolution Some projects Potential threats Conclusion Film projection

34. R Struzak 34 What we may expect … Stratospheric radio capable –To facilitate the access to modern information infrastructures (closing information gap) –To impact significantly the business of the existing telecommunications –To create new problems to passive RF services

35. R Struzak 35 Questions HAPS-generated re-radiation of radio waves and false signals may cause harmful interference to passive services and applications Can it be ignored? If not, should/ could the ITU Radio Regulations deal with such kind of interference?

36. R Struzak 36 Outline Background Evolution Some projects Conclusion Film projection

37. R Struzak 37 Thank you for your attention For references see: Struzak R: Mobile telecommunications via stratosphere; http://www.intercomms.net/AUG03/content/struzak1.php http://www.intercomms.net/AUG03/content/struzak1.php

38. R Struzak 38 Copyright © 2004 R Struzak. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenbses/by/1.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenbses/by/1.0 These materials may be used freely for individual study, research, and education in not-for-profit applications. Any other use (and/or displaying the material in the WWW) requires the written author’s permission If you cite these materials, please credit the author. If you have comments or suggestions, please send these directly to the author at r.struzak@ieee.org.r.struzak@ieee.org Copyright note