Trial Balloon Base-Station for Disasters
Just noted this emergency infrastructure radio relay concept project run by SoftBank and the Hokkaido Univ. http://bit.ly/JSmolE
Machine Translation:
SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. announced a radio relay system extraordinary use that are intended to recover quickly the service area communication failure has occurred such as disaster, the balloon mooring radio balloon relay, today, has acquired the license for this experimental test station from Tokai Bureau of Telecommunications Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and evaluate field proven using this system. Experiment will be a period of six years until the end of 2013, done in the vicinity of the Kiso River, Aichi Prefecture Inazawa, to evaluate the quality and service area, such as the size of the communication speed or radio relay system when using this balloon.
Balloon radio relay systems
Radio relay system this balloon is available in the band (2.1GHz) 3G system.
Are configured in the balloon relay station (“child machine” hereinafter) source base station and the relay (“base unit” below), the frequency relay between the cordless handset and base unit of the mobile zone between 3.3GHz, and cordless handset access frequency of the band 2.1GHz, 5MHz bandwidth is the width of both.
Using a balloon tethered to stabilize the position and altitude of the cordless handset, the flat balloon ※ have to stabilize the position of the balloon by air.
Death (to the antenna height) is about 100m above ground altitude of the balloon, the service area is expected to ensure more than 3km radius in the suburbs.
Relay distance between the base unit and cordless handset is expected to ensure more than 5km in the forward-looking statements.
SOFTBANK MOBILE is the event of a disaster, we have implemented various initiatives. Development of this balloon radio relay system is part of their efforts. Know-how and utilizing the data obtained through our experiment, will endeavor to recover the communications network promptly in the event of a disaster.