AeroVironment [AVAV] and Space Data Corp. recently each said they demonstrate aerial communications technologies in support of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) data collection effort for quickly establishing broadband aerial communications capabilities following a natural or manmade disaster that renders existing communications networks unusable.
AeroVironment said it will employ is family of portable, hand-launched small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to provide an airborne communication relay to support the FCC’s Deployable Aerial Communications Architecture (DACA) Notice of Inquiry. The company also said it will demonstrate its Digital Data Link, which is a standard component of its small UAS, as well as third party communications payloads to connect users with data and voice over long distances.
Space Data will demonstrate its near-space balloon platforms with its partners’ technologies for rapid post-disaster communications. Space Data is teaming with Motorola [MOT] and Oceus Networks, which will provide its base station, to provide wide area coverage to mobile and portable Long Term Evolution user devices in Arizona and Colorado for the demonstrations.
The upcoming demonstrations planned by AeroVironment and Space Data will be used to collect data that they will separately submit for the DACA program. The FCC will use the data to help it determine any type regulatory regime the agency might establish for aerial communications in a post-disaster environment.
Communications relay payloads that would be carried by the UAS and balloons are meant to enable handheld public safety and emergency response radios to communicate with one another over long distances without ground-based antennas or repeaters.
The UAS and balloons can be quickly deployed with their payloads to begin offering a communications network with existing radios and related systems.
The demonstrations will occur this summer. Once the FCC collects data, it will decide whether to do a rule making.