Welcome to the office in the sky

The custom ground-to-air cellular system launched by SmartSky is for once deserving of the term gamechanger. This next-generation inflight communications network reinvents aviation connectivity for corporate flyers. Unlike anything that’s gone before, it blends advanced cellular technologies into a completely bespoke, highly secure network specifically designed for aviation. Crucially, the breakthrough system features very low latency, high throughput access to cloud and edge services – allowing service operators to market office-like connectivity for the sky.

We at CC are proud to have worked alongside SmartSky on a long-term program of work to develop the network technology and service management platform. We became a trusted extension to its team, committed to turning a business ambition into reality. The goal could not be achieved with existing technologies, so we faced uncharted obstacles together.

The high-performance network had to be designed for a truly challenging environment. The task was to deliver superfast, resilient and low latency connectivity to users travelling at more than 600 mph, maneuvering rapidly at 30,000 ft. Minimizing the impact of the Doppler effect – the changes in frequency between a moving source and observer – was one of the many challenges vital for a successful outcome. 

The project demanded that we draw on our full depth of knowledge across wireless and cloud technologies. A multidisciplinary team was assembled to meet the extreme pressure of deadlines dictated by SmartSky’s mission-critical timescales.

In all, the development brought 200 patents to life – a reflection of the number of new technologies created as the project broke exciting new territory. The resulting custom cellular network with modifying radio links operates in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM band with a host of advanced 5G technologies. 

Unique customizations abound in the new network. They include novel beamforming as well as multiple optimizations for highly mobile applications, such as timing and signaling. The solution is one that benefits from the best of both worlds. Standard, commoditized technologies and products are balanced with customization to achieve unique performance especially for aviation. 

The new-to-the-market beamforming capability from base stations on the ground creates wedge-shaped coverage patterns that radiate at shallow angles to the earth, creating uniform coverage over vast geographies. This is especially effective at ensuring resilient connectivity with reduced Doppler effect as the aircraft moves and enabling planes to stay within coverage for longer.

It also improves spectral efficiency and network capacity, extends range to more than 200 km (typical cellular range is 10 km) and improves signal to noise ratio. Uniquely, a single beam is provided to each aircraft at any one time, which improves the user experience. This is an entirely novel concept, truly at the cutting edge. 

On board the aircraft, a unique antenna beam control algorithm continuously selects the optimal beam from one of many possibilities. The selected beam is then directed towards the base station on the ground. The beauty of this smart utility is that a high quality of service is automatically maintained regardless of the plane’s rapid changes of attitude and position in relation to the base station. It all happens in a blink of an eye.

In tandem with the custom radio system, we worked with SmartSky to develop a highly intuitive service management platform to monitor service quality across the network and enhance the services it provides. The platform offers a comprehensive overview of the health of ground operations and – crucially – the inflight experience of every customer.

This will allow service assurance and constant optimization; in-depth, real-time analysis of the onboard services; and the ability to carry out predictive maintenance. User interfaces enable SmartSky’s teams to manage crucial aspects of the service, from billing and customer support to commissioning and product management.

Another significant advantage of the service management platform is that it allows SmartSky to share network and service information with all its partners and users, from value added resellers of connectivity to aviation companies. The platform includes APIs for third party service providers so that they will be able to benefit from real-time indications of service quality. This smooths the way for improving operational efficiency in areas such as flight path optimization, turbulence avoidance and data management. 

In the summer of 2021, SmartSky announced to the world that all technical milestones of its next-generation broadband air-to-ground network had been achieved. The service was good to go, proven for business jet and turboprop flights transiting the network’s south-eastern corridor, covering a large part of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Incredibly, the dream has been delivered with multi-Mbps connectivity – enabling inflight VPN, HD downloads and much more. 

More than 100 engineers from Cambridge Consultants have worked across multiple phases of work in the lead up to SmartSky’s commercial launch. All of them can reflect on a job well done: a huge multidisciplinary effort, deploying a breadth of skills in a host of complementary areas, from field-programmable gate array circuit design and user experience to radio system development and advanced antennas. The solution was delivered rapidly and at scale, thanks to a structured, agile project approach that married resources across seven countries and 16 time zones. A lot of work but, hey, that’s what it takes to help reinvent inflight business connectivity.