C-COM develops Q-band antenna for tracking a moving stratospheric platform
C-COM Satellite Systems has developed a new 1.2m Q-band Driveaway Antenna for tracking a moving platform in the stratosphere.
The new iNetVu® 1200+ Q-band Driveaway Antenna is a rugged, carbon-fiber based antenna system, designed with heavy-duty precision gearing and robust servomotors, to ensure continuous reliable tracking of a moving stratospheric platform.
The vehicle-mounted system is a rapidly deployable ground station that maintains a Q-band link at 38-40GHz to a flying stratospheric platform. It’s part of next generation, Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) used as a gateway between a flying node and a terrestrial core network.
The flying node is described as a HAPS (High Altitude Platform Station), an unmanned arial vehicle (UAV) deployed into the stratosphere at a height of around 20 kilometers.
It is also known as a flying cell tower; as it can cover an area of approximately 250 kilometers in radius and can replace hundreds of ground-based cell towers.
The mobile platform can be rapidly deployed over a disaster area where terrestrial networks are unavailable or have been destroyed and deliver 4G/5G and 6G cellular coverage to unmodified cellphones with extremely low latency.
The advantages offered by this unique solution as compared to traditional approaches is that the setup does not need any fixed earth station gateway.
The vehicle equipped with the C-COM antenna becomes a mobile gateway and can be deployed and connected in minutes. The mobile gateway provides the customer a highly suitable solution for quick disaster response or for any temporary coverage for multiples sites.
In addition, the millimeter-wave link at Q-band delivers far higher bandwidth when compared to Ku and Ka bands and has the added advantage of making it harder to intercept, thus making it more suitable for backhaul applications and security-sensitive uses.
“The system has been designed to deliver rapidly deployable and transportable Non-Terrestrial Networks for backhauling and emergency services in areas where fiber or cellular infrastructure does not exist,” said Dr. Leslie Klein, President and CEO of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc.
Using C-COM's high-precision antenna hardware, the system tracks moving communication nodes positioned in the stratosphere, in real time, and establishes high-capacity, low-latency links in the millimeter-wave band. It enables a solution that conventional fixed microwave and geostationary satellite links cannot deliver; rapidly deployable, uninterrupted, high-capacity connectivity with a moving counterpart,” added Dr. Klein.
