Ottawa antenna maker C-COM Satellite Systems announced Oct. 14 it has developed a vehicle-mounted Q-band antenna that tracks communications platforms flying about 20 kilometres up, extending its driveaway product line into the emerging market for stratospheric cellular networks.
Telecom operators, SoftBank among them, are developing high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), uncrewed aircraft and airships that operate in the stratosphere and serve as airborne cell sites. Each platform relays its traffic to the terrestrial network through a ground gateway over what is known as a feeder link. C-COM’s iNetVu 1200+ Q-band Driveaway Antenna puts that gateway on a vehicle, using precision gearing and servomotors to keep a 1.2-metre carbon-fibre dish locked on a platform in motion.
C-COM says the vehicle can be deployed and connected within minutes without a fixed earth station, positioning it for disaster response where ground networks have been damaged and for temporary coverage across multiple sites. President and chief executive Leslie Klein said the system was designed for “backhauling and emergency services in areas where fiber or cellular infrastructure does not exist.”
HAPS Gateway With C-COM 1.2m Q-band Tracking Antenna. Credit: C-COM
The antenna holds its link at 38 to 40 gigahertz, in the Q-band, which C-COM says delivers far more bandwidth than the Ku and Ka bands its other antennas use. The company adds that a Q-band link is harder to intercept, which suits backhaul and security-sensitive uses. Part of that range was identified for HAPS use worldwide at the International Telecommunication Union’s 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference.
In May, C-COM announced the FLY-101-LEO Tracker, a transportable antenna for satellites in low and medium Earth orbit, with sales expected to begin by the end of August. The Q-band release sets no sale date or price and names no customer. Nor does it say whether the antenna has yet held a link with a platform in flight.
SoftBank and Sceye of New Mexico ran Japan’s first HAPS trial service in August, the Japanese operator said Sept. 2. A Sceye lighter-than-air platform crossed the Pacific in about 13 days and held position off Cape Muroto in Kochi Prefecture, where a 4G-equivalent base station on board connected to SoftBank’s core network through a ground gateway. The partners are preparing for commercial service from 2027. SoftBank’s release does not say what equipment or frequencies carried that gateway link.