Project Loon

1. INTRODUCTION
The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out
of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And
this is far from being a solved problem.

Fig 1.1 Internet Connectivity Differentiation

There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivityjungles, archipelagos,
mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Solving these problems isnt simply a
question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles.
PROJECT LOON is one such initiative taken up by Google to solve the above mentioned
problems. Team Loon believes that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons,
flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth
below. They have built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice
as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to
todays 3G networks or faster. As a result, they hope balloons could become an option for
connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazyand thats part of the reason were
calling it Project Loon,but theres solid science behind it.

Fig 1.2 Balloon

The balloons are maneuvered by adjusting their altitude to float to a wind layer after
identifying the wind layer with the desired speed and direction. using wind data from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Users of the service connect
to the balloon network using a special Internet antenna attached to their building. The signal
travels through the balloon network from balloon to balloon, then to a ground-based station
connected to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), then onto the global Internet. The system
aims to bring Internet access to remote and rural areas poorly served by existing provisions,
and to improve communication during natural disasters to affected regions. Key people
involved in the project include Rich DeVaul, chief technical architect, who is also an expert
on wearable technology; Mike Cassidy, a project leader; and Cyrus Behroozi, a networking
and telecommunication lead.

1.1 History
In 2008, Google had considered contracting with or acquiring Space Data Corp., a company
that sends balloons carrying small base stations about 20 miles (32 km) up in the air for
providing connectivity to truckers and oil companies in the southern United States, but
didn't do so.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

Unofficial development on the project began in 2011 under incubation in Google X with a
series of trial runs in California's Central Valley. The project was officially announced as
a Google project on 14 June 2013.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

2. LOON DESIGN
Project Loon relies mainly on three parts which are as follows:

Envelope

Solar Panels

Network Equipment

Loon Antenna

Envelope
The inflatable part of the balloon is called a balloon envelope. A well-made balloon
envelope is critical for allowing a balloon to last around 100 days in the stratosphere.
Loons balloon envelopes are made from sheets of polyethylene plastic, and they measure
fifteen meters wide by twelve meters tall when fully inflated. When a balloon is ready to
be taken out of service, gas is released from the envelope to bring the balloon down to Earth
in a controlled descent. In the unlikely event that a balloon drops too quickly, a parachute
attached to the top of the envelope is deployed.

Fig 2.1 Envelope

Solar Panels
Each balloons electronics are powered by an array of solar panels. The solar array is a
flexible plastic laminate supported by a light-weight aluminum frame. It uses high

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

efficiency monocrystalline solar cells. The solar array is mounted at a steep angle to
effectively capture sunlight on short winter days at higher latitudes. The array is divided
into two sections facing in opposite directions, allowing us to capture energy in any
orientation as the balloons spin slowly in the wind. The panels produce approximately 100
Watts of power in full sun, which is enough to keep Loons electronics running while also
charging a battery for use at night. By moving with the wind and charging in the sun, Project
Loon is able to power itself using entirely renewable energy sources.

Fig 2.2 Solar Panels

Network Equipment
A small box containing the balloons electronics hangs underneath the inflated envelope,
like the basket carried by a hot air balloon. This box contains circuit boards that control the
system, radio antennas to communicate with other balloons and with Internet antennas on
the ground, and lithium ion batteries to store solar power so the balloons can operate
throughout the night.

Fig 2.3 Network Equipment

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

Inside each box is a mini-command center: radio sensors, satellite receivers, and WiFi
electronics, along with a stack of custom Google X circuit-boards. These computers
measure acceleration, take temperature measurements, run communications between
satellite and WiFi networks, and who knows what else. This is how Google Mission Control
talks to each Loon and tells it what to do.
Loon Antenna
The loon antenna shaped in circular manner marking the symbolism of balloon. They are
attached to the households or workplaces wherever the internet connectivity needs to be
established.

Fig 2.4 Loon Antenna

The Loon Antenna consists of the following parts

Patch Antenna

Reflector

Radio

The top part of the interior of the shell is composed of a reflector disc, a pair of parallel
patch antenna (radiating elements) perched a few inches above the disc, and a pair of cables
leading down to the radio, which lives in the bottom half of the bulb.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

Fig 2.5 Interior Parts of Loon Antenna

The patch antenna receive reflected radio waves from the reflector disc as well as direct
waves. The two sources interfere constructively for the correct wavelength to be received.
The radio transmits signals to the devices.
Initial Challenges
It was hard to make a super-pressure balloon. Instead of bursting, the balloon slowly leaked
helium, bringing it down after just a day or two in flight. Even a millimeter-sized hole will
bring a balloon like this down in a couple days, Cassidy says. And thats what happened
to the next 40 or 50 balloons we made.
Googles engineers spent weeks trying to isolate the problem. They took balloons out of
their boxes and inflated them in a cavernous hangar at Moffett Field in Mountain View,
shined polarized light through them, and even sniffed for helium leaks using a mass
spectrometer. Each balloon that went down was subjected to a failure analysis that
included poring over meticulous records of who had assembled it, where, and using what
equipment, and how it had been transported.
Eventually they pinned the leaks on two sets of problems. One was that the balloons had to
be folded several times over to be transported, and some developed tiny tears at the corners
where theyd been folded repeatedly. Google set to work finding ways to fold and roll the
balloons that would distribute the stress more evenly across the fabric.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

The second problem was that some balloons were ripping slightly when workers stepped
on the fabric with their socks. The solution to that problem? Fluffier socks, says Cassidy.
Seriously, that made a difference. Softer socks meant fewer leaks.
As the team cut down on the leaks, the balloons started lasting longer: four days, then six,
then several weeks at a time. As of November, Cassidy says, two out of every three balloons
remain in the sky for at least 100 days.
But keeping the balloons airborne is only the first of the monumental problems that the
project presented. Keeping them on course may be even harder.
When Google first announced the project, I pictured brightly colored vessels hovering in
place a few hundred or thousand feet over their respective target villages, perhaps tethered
to the worlds longest ropes. The reality is far more complexand fascinating.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

3. WORKING OF LOON
Project Loon balloons travel approximately 20 km above the Earths surface in the
stratosphere. Winds in the stratosphere are stratified, and each layer of wind varies in speed
and direction. Project Loon uses software algorithms to determine where its balloons need
to go, then moves each one into a layer of wind blowing in the right direction. By moving
with the wind, the balloons can be arranged to form one large communications network.

Fig 3.1 Loon balloons in Stratosphere

Situated on the edge of space, between 10 km and 60 km in altitude, the stratosphere
presents unique engineering challenges: air pressure is 1% that at sea level, and this thin
atmosphere offers less protection from UV radiation and dramatic temperature swings,
which can reach as low as -80C. By carefully designing the balloon envelope to withstand
these conditions, Project Loon is able to take advantage of the stratospheres steady winds
and remain well above weather events, wildlife and airplanes.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

10

Fig 3.2 Loon Balloon Placed above 20 Km altitude

The technology designed in the project could allow countries to avoid using expensive fiber
cable that would have to be installed underground to allow users to connect to the Internet.
Google feels this will greatly increase Internet usage in developing countries in regions
such as Africa and Southeast Asia that can't afford to lay underground fiber cable.
The high-altitude polyethylene balloons fly around the world on the prevailing winds
(mostly in a direction parallel with lines of latitude, i.e. east or west). Solar panels supplied
by PowerFilm, Inc about the size of a card table that are just below the free-flying balloons
generate enough electricity in four hours to power the transmitter for a day and beam down
the Internet signal to ground stations. These ground stations are spaced about 100 km
(62 mi) apart, or two balloon hops, and bounce the signal to other relay balloons that send
the signal back down. This makes Internet access available to anyone in the world who has
a receiver and is within range of a balloon. Currently, the balloons communicate using
unlicensed 2.4 and 5.8 GHz ISM bands, and Google claims that the setup allows it to deliver
"speeds comparable to 3G" to users. It is unclear how technologies that rely on short
communications times (low latency pings), such as VoIP, might need to be modified to
work in an environment similar to mobile phones where the signal may have to relay
through multiple balloons before reaching the wider Internet.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

11

Powering it all is a 600-watt battery, charged by solar panels on a carbon fiber frame atop
the box. These large, extra-light photovoltaic cells -- amorphous silicon crystals on a fabric
substrate -- keep the weight of the balloon low so that the Loons can run for long missions
without landing. During the daytime, the batteries charge, and at night they switch on, to
vent out excess air and keep the computers running.
Each Loon balloon has three radio frequency antennas (on 2.4 Ghz and 5.8 Ghz bands) and
a ground-pointing WiFi antenna, which beams an Internet signal to Earth in a 12-mile
radius. And though the balloons are mostly steerable, Google has done a lot of
programming to make them work on their own as well; In addition to Mission Control,
Google's Loon balloons can talk to each other, and control themselves."We use a distributed
mesh network, so each balloon is pretty autonomous and has pretty much the same
hardware in it," Sameera Ponda, a lead aerospace engineer at the Dos Palos site that day,
said on the video stream. "As one balloon floats over a certain area that balloon is talking
to the ground antennas, and as that balloon floats away, another balloon comes in and takes
its place, so it's a pretty seamless operation."

3.1 Technologies and Equipments Used

LTE
For the transmission of wireless signals Loon uses LTE Standard.
LTE, an abbreviation for Long-Term Evolution, commonly marketed as 4G LTE, is a
standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data
terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies,
increasing the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with core
network improvements.
LTE is the natural upgrade path for carriers with both GSM/UMTS networks and
CDMA2000 networks. The different LTE frequencies and bands used in different countries
will mean that only multi-band phones will be able to use LTE in all countries where it is
supported.
The goal of LTE was to increase the capacity and speed of wireless data networks using
new DSP (digital signal processing) techniques and modulations that were developed
around the turn of the millennium. A further goal was the redesign and simplification of

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

12

the network architecture to an IP-based system with significantly reduced transfer latency
compared to the 3G architecture. The LTE wireless interface is incompatible with 2G and
3G networks, so that it must be operated on a separate wireless spectrum.
Antenna
An antenna (or aerial) is an electrical device which converts electric power into radio
waves, and vice versa.[1] It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver. In
transmission, a radio transmitter supplies an electric current oscillating at radio frequency
(i.e. a high frequency alternating current (AC)) to the antenna's terminals, and the antenna
radiates the energy from the current as electromagnetic waves (radio waves). In reception,
an antenna intercepts some of the power of an electromagnetic wave in order to produce a
tiny voltage at its terminals, that is applied to a receiver to be amplified.
Antennas are essential components of all equipment that uses radio. They are used in
systems such as radio broadcasting, broadcast television, two-way radio, communications
receivers, radar, cell phones, and satellite communications, as well as other devices such as
garage door openers, wireless microphones, Bluetooth-enabled devices, wireless computer
networks, baby monitors, and RFID tags on merchandise.
Antennas can be designed to transmit and receive radio waves in all horizontal directions
equally (omnidirectional antennas), or preferentially in a particular direction (directional or
high gain antennas). In the latter case, an antenna may also include additional elements or
surfaces with no electrical connection to the transmitter or receiver, such as parasitic
elements, parabolic reflectors or horns, which serve to direct the radio waves into a beam
or other desired radiation pattern.
Solar Panels
Solar panels can be used as a component of a larger photovoltaic system to generate and
supply electricity in commercial and residential applications. Each module is rated by its
DC output power under standard test conditions (STC), and typically ranges from 100 to
320 watts. The efficiency of a module determines the area of a module given the same rated
output - an 8% efficient 230 watt module will have twice the area of a 16% efficient 230
watt module. There are a few solar panels available that are exceeding 19% efficiency. A
single solar module can produce only a limited amount of power; most installations contain

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

13

multiple modules. A photovoltaic system typically includes a panel or an array of solar

modules, an inverter, and sometimes a battery and/or solar tracker and interconnection
wiring.
Solar modules use light energy (photons) from the sun to generate electricity through the
photovoltaic effect. The majority of modules use wafer-based crystalline silicon cells or
thin-film cells based on cadmium telluride or silicon. The structural (load carrying) member
of a module can either be the top layer or the back layer. Cells must also be protected from
mechanical damage and moisture. Most solar modules are rigid, but semi-flexible ones are
available, based on thin-film cells. These early solar modules were first used in space in
1958.
Multi-Layer Insulation
Multi-layer insulation, or MLI, is thermal insulation composed of multiple layers of thin
sheets and is often used on spacecraft. It is one of the main items of the spacecraft thermal
design, primarily intended to reduce heat loss by thermal radiation. In its basic form, it does
not appreciably insulate against other thermal losses such as heat conduction or convection.
It is therefore commonly used on satellites and other applications in vacuum where
conduction and convection are much less significant and radiation dominates. The principle
behind MLI is radiation balance.

3.2 How Loon Connects

Each balloon can provide connectivity to a ground area about 40 km in diameter using a
wireless communications technology called LTE. To use LTE, Project Loon partners with
telecommunications companies to share cellular spectrum so that people will be able to
access the Internet everywhere directly from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices.
Balloons relay wireless traffic from cell phones and other devices back to the global Internet
using high-speed links.
Each balloon is networked to one another with a radio transceiver as in a mesh, designed
to ensure signal reliability. A second transceiver keeps the balloon in contact with a network
station on the ground and beams an Internet signal to specialized antennas that can be
placed on homes, much like a very small satellite TV receiver.
There is also a back-up transceiver and a GPS on each balloon, so Google can monitor a
balloon's location. And each balloon will carry weather instruments, too.
Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

14

Fig 3.3 Loon Connectivity

3.3 Wind Data Management

Google been using data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) regarding predicted stratospheric wind directions. One shortcoming in NOAA's
wind data is that it comes from weather balloons, which spend a limited time floating ever
higher in the stratosphere before they pop and therefore don't have a lot of ongoing
information to share.
Google's test balloons, which the company tracks via GPS and can remotely steer, are flying
at the same speed as the wind currents. Because the company intends to keep a fleet of
balloons aloft at all times, Google expects it will be able to gather vast amounts of
information from its own balloons regarding wind currents, which it intends to share with
NOAA.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

15

4. EXPERIMENTAL IMPLEMENTATION
On 16 June 2013, Google began a pilot experiment in New Zealand where about 30
balloons were launched in coordination with the Civil Aviation Authority from the Tekapo
area in the South Island. About 50 local users in and around Christchurch and the
Canterbury Region tested connections to the aerial network using special antennas. After
this initial trial, Google plans on sending up 300 balloons around the world at the 40th
parallel south that would provide coverage to New Zealand, Australia, Chile, and
Argentina. Google hopes to eventually have thousands of balloons flying in the
stratosphere.
The first person to get Google Balloon Internet access this week was Charles Nimmo, a
farmer and entrepreneur in the small town of Leeston. He found the experience a little
bemusing after he was one of 50 locals who signed up to be a tester for a project that was
so secret, no one would explain to them what was happening. Technicians came to the
volunteers' homes and attached to the outside walls bright red receivers the size of
basketballs and resembling giant Google map pins.
In May 2014 Astro Teller announced that rather than negotiate a section of bandwidth that
was free for them worldwide they would instead become a temporary base station that could
be leased by the mobile operators of the country it was crossing over.
In May-June 2014 Google tested its balloon-powered internet access venture in Piau,
Brazil, marking its first LTE experiments and launch near the equator. In 2014 Google
partnered with France's Centre national d'tudes spatiales (CNES) on the project.
Each balloon would provide Internet service for an area twice the size of New York City,
about 1,250 square kilometres, and terrain is not a challenge. They could stream Internet
into Afghanistan's steep and winding Khyber Pass or Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, a
country where the World Bank estimates four out of every 100 people are online.
Google engineers studied balloon science from NASA, the Defense Department and the Jet
Propulsion Lab to design their own airships made of plastic films similar to grocery bags.
Hundreds have been built so far.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

16

Recovery of balloon
Balloons are controlled by raising and lowering them to an altitude with winds blowing in
the desired direction of travel. We plan to take our balloons down over preselected, safe
recovery zones so we can easily collect them to reuse and recycle their parts. In the event
of an unexpected landing, every Loon balloon is equipped with a parachute to slow its
descent.
The Project Loon team includes several recovery specialists who track down and collect
landed balloons. We track our balloons continuously in the air using GPS and we take note
of their location when they land. Once the landing location is known, the recovery team
will be on their way. Ultimately, we plan to land the balloons in various collection points
around the world.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

17

5. CHALLANGES
Since Loon will use radios, it will have to use spectrum, which is tightly regulated by the
worlds governments. It cant just use any old spectrum either. It will have to convince
hundreds of different regulators to agree on a unified band or ride over an existing one
such as the unlicensed airwaves used for Wi-Fi. But the scope and range of Googles Loon
network will likely require dedicated airwaves. Just imagine a Wi-Fi network blasting down
at high-power from the heavens. If your wireless router is using the same airwaves, it will
be drowned out.
And were not talking about a scenario as simple as Wi-Fi, where airwaves are ultimately
shared by multiple entities. Were talking about Google becoming a global ISP, actually
providing or selling internet service. ISPs, like any communications service provider, are
regulated, and governments will likely want some say in how that access is offered, what
Google can charge, and ultimately whom Google is allowed to connect.
As The Register reported in June, astronomers at the Square Kilometre Array program,
which houses galactic research facilities in both Australia and New Zealand, are upset that
Google was going ahead without considering its effect on the scientific community. As
high-flying radio transmitters go, even one Loon balloon could disrupt its technology.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

18

6. SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES
6.1 Weather Balloon
A weather or sounding balloon is a balloon (specifically a type of high altitude balloon)
which carries instruments aloft to send back information on atmospheric pressure,
temperature, humidity and wind speed by means of a small, expendable measuring device
called a radiosonde. To obtain wind data, they can be tracked by radar, radio direction
finding, or navigation systems (such as the satellite-based Global Positioning System,
GPS). Balloons meant to stay at a constant altitude for long periods of time are known as
transosondes.
One of the first people to use weather balloons was Lon Teisserenc de Bort, the French
meteorologist. Starting in 1896 he launched hundreds of weather balloons from his
observatory in Trappes, France. These experiments lead to his discovery of the tropopause
and stratosphere. Transosondes, weather balloons with instrumentation meant to stay at a
constant altitude for long periods of time to help diagnose radioactive debris from atomic
fallout, were experimented with in 1958.
Weather balloons are launched around the world for observations used to diagnose current
conditions as well as by human forecasters and computer models for weather forecasting.
About 800 locations around the globe do routine releases, twice daily, usually at 0000 UTC
and 1200 UTC. Some facilities will also do occasional supplementary "special" releases
when meteorologists determine there is a need for additional data between the 12-hour
routine launches in which time much can change in the atmosphere. Military and civilian
government meteorological agencies such as the National Weather Service in the US
typically launch balloons, and by international agreements almost all the data are shared
with all nations.
Specialized uses also exist, such as for aviation interests, pollution monitoring,
photography or videography and research. Examples include pilot balloons (Pibal). Field
research programs often use mobile launchers from land vehicles as well as ships and
aircraft (usually dropsondes in this case). In recent years weather balloons have also been
used for scattering human ashes at high-altitude by companies such as Stardust Ashes,
founded by Chester Mojay-Sinclare.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

19

6.2 NASAs Mission Mars Through Balloons

Balloons have been flying for decades in Earth's stratosphere, which has an atmosphere as
thin as that on the surface of Mars. Conventional stratospheric balloons have lifetimes
limited to a few days because of the daily heating and cooling of the balloon. Helium
superpressure balloons, currently under development for the Ultra Long Duration Balloon
(ULDB), will fly more than 100 days and perhaps as long as a year. Smaller superpressure
balloons carrying payloads of only a few kilograms have already flown for as long as a
year.
This technology is now being applied to Mars. The Mars balloon would be deployed soon
after the spacecraft enters the Mars atmosphere and would be rapidly inflated from a helium
tank as the payload descends beneath a parachute. After inflation is complete, the parachute
and tanks would detach and the balloon and its science payload would then fly at a nearly
constant altitude for both day and night. The balloon's internal pressure would be higher
during the day than at night, although the balloon volume would remain the same. Strong,
lightweight, leak-proof material is under development to permit large payloads to be flown
on Mars by such a balloon and tests of balloon deployment in the Earth's atmosphere are
underway. Payloads would include imaging, magnetometers, spectroscopy and any
technique that can benefit from surface proximity.

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

20

7. CONCLUSION
Google's vision for Project Loon procures schooling for those currently without education,
brings doctors for people who cannot travel to see one, and provides important weather
data to assist farmers, whose harvests are affected by droughts and floods.
Illiteracy, Disease and Famine could be dealt a swift and telling blow with a little Wi-Fi
and according to Team Loon, balloons stationed so high above the earth they can only be
seen with a telescope, is the most affordable and best way to achieve this.
"The materials are pretty inexpensive," says Project Loon's Richard DeVaul. "The plastic
of the balloons is similar to that in shopping bags and the electronics aren't that different
from consumer electronics. This is a very cost-effective way to connect the world."
There is near about 75% comment is in the favor of project loons. As per the experts there
would be great Success for this Project in Future. And we hope balloons could become an
option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with
communications after natural disasters.

7.1 Crash incidents

In May 2014, a Loon balloon came down in Washington, United States
On 20 June 2014, a Loon balloon caused a minor panic when it crashed in New Zealand.
Strydenburg, South Africa (Beeld 20 November 2014).

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)

Project Loon

21

BIBILIOGRAPHY
Websites:

http://www.google.co.in/loon/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Loon

https://sites.google.com/a/pressatgoogle.com/project-loon/facts-and-figures

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10890750

Dept. Of CSE

MREC(Autonomous)