The Future of Wide-Area Communications Flexible Platforms in the Sky

Flexible Platforms in the Sky Stratospheric Drones Could Change How We Connect

- By Hamed Khalkhali, PhD, Swift Engineering

FIGURE 1 Solar-powered drones, designed to fly for weeks without landing, tend to operate at high altitudes, where their instruments can obtain data from a wider stage, and their slower, autonomous flight won't interfere with other aircraft.

If you've ever tried streaming a video in a remote area or thought about how emergency responders stay connected during disasters, you've probably wondered how our world stays linked together. Satellites have long been our go-to solution for global connectivity, but as global internet traffic explodes, satellite networks are starting to show their limits.

So, what's next? What if the answer isn’t way up in space, but just a bit closer, in the stratosphere? That’s where solar-powered drones, designed to fly for weeks at a time, come in. These high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are quietly shaping a new way to connect the world.

LIMITS OF SATELLITE NETWORKS — WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Satellites have changed the way we communicate, but their increasing numbers are creating challenges. Right now, there are thousands of satellites orbiting Earth, and tens of thousands more are planned in the next decade. This growing congestion leads to several issues, including bandwidth bottlenecks, signal interference, high costs, and high (or at least highly variable) latency.

Bandwidth Bottlenecks: The radio frequencies satellites use are a limited resource. More satellites mean more competition for this bandwidth, which can slow data speeds and reduce capacity.

Signal Interference: With so many satellites crammed into shared orbital lanes, signals can start to overlap and interfere with each other, causing connection problems.