Report: Google wants to transmit data up to 40 times faster than today’s 4G LTE speeds.
Google could soon be transmitting data up to 40 times faster than today’s 4G LTE speeds if a report published by the Guardian are anything to go by.
According to the report, Google said to be testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America in New Mexico Spaceport Center, in association with Virgin Galactic to explore ways to deliver high-speed internet from the air.
Under the project, Codenamed SkyBender, Google is said to have built several prototype transceivers at the isolated spaceport last summer, and is testing them with multiple drones.
Google’s plan is to use high frequency millimeter waves which has recently been receiving a lot of press to transmit data up to 40 times faster than today’s 4G LTE speeds. Millimeter waves has been termed as a technology that will expand the wireless future. According to an article on Electronics Design website, technology is finally making millimeter waves practical to use, enabling the continued growth of wireless communications before we run out of spectrum.
Millimeter waves occupy the frequency spectrum from 30 GHz to 300 GHz and are found in the spectrum between microwaves (1 GHz to 30 GHz) and infrared (IR) waves, which is sometimes known as extremely high frequency (EHF). The wavelength (λ) is in the 1-mm to 10-mm range. The article says at one time this part of the spectrum was essentially unused simply because few if any electronic components could generate or receive millimeter waves.
Millimeter waves also permit high digital data rates. Wireless data rates in microwave frequencies and below are now limited to about 1 Gbit/s. In the millimeter-wave range, data rates can reach 10 Gbits/s and more.
The report by the Guardian adds that the SkyBender system is being tested with an “optionally piloted” aircraft called Centaur as well as solar-powered drones made by Google Titan,
