PROJECT LOON

Project Loon Connecting the world with internet balloons.

Gunjan Jain

Manasa Vasudev

Pradnesh Adurkar

Navyatha Sathya Prasad

1-29-2016

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PROJECT LOON

Executive Summary

Internet in today’s world has become a basic necessity for us. In the twentieth-first century, being citizens of a developing or a developed nation we consider internet to be ubiquitous. However, the truth is that around two-thirds of the world’s population is deprived of internet .Thus via Project loon we are trying to provide internet connection in the remote parts of the world using balloons. This proposal intends to explain in detail the project followed by the design and working of the apparatus. It further proceeds in discussing the problems associated with the project and proposes solution with cost-benefit analysis of the project.

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PROJECT LOON

TableofContents

Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………….2

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..4

Working……………………………………………………………………………...4

Design………………………………………………………………………………..4

Problem and Solution………………………………………………………………………..6

Benefits………………………………………………………………………………………7

Call to action…………………………………………………………………………………8

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...9

References…………………………………………………………………………………...10

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PROJECT LOON

Introduction

According to recent statistics by Internet live only 40% of the population on earth enjoy internet facilities and about 60% of the human life is deprived of it. Project Loon by Google X serves as a prime solution to this problem. Project Loon is a network of balloons travelling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters.

Project Loon began in June 2013 as a pilot experiment in New Zealand where the pioneers of the project tested this technology. During this pilot test thirty balloons were launched in the stratosphere and it beamed internet to a small group of pilot testers and the next stages of project were to expand the internet coverage spectrum. (Project Loon. (2013, June).Retrieved from https://www.google.com/loon/)

Working

The project uses high-altitude balloons placed in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 32 km (20 mi) to create an aerial wireless network with up to 3G-like speeds. In the stratosphere there are many layers of wind, and each layer of wind varies in direction and speed. Wind data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is collected and analyzed to maneuver the balloons using software algorithms by adjusting their altitude to float to a wind layer with the desired speed and direction. The signals travel through the balloon network from one balloon to another and further to the ground-base station which is connected to an Internet service provider. By partnering with Tele-communications companies to share cellular spectrum Google has enabled people to connect to the balloon network directly from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices.

Design

Envelope: The inflatable part of balloon is called envelope. Envelope is made from a sheet of polyethylene plastic. Envelope is fifteen meters tall by twelve meters wide in a fully inflated

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PROJECT LOON

state. When a balloon is ready to be taken out of service, gas is released from the envelope to bring it down to the earth at controlled speeds. And in case of an emergency where the balloon drops too quickly the parachutes attached at the top of the balloon are deployed to control the descent. (Project Loon. (2013, June).Retrieved from https://www.google.com/loon/)

Solar Panels

Each balloon’s electronics are powered by an array of solar panels. Steep angle of solar array facilitates effective capturing of sunlight on short winter days at higher altitudes. The array is divided into two sections facing in opposite directions, allowing the balloon to capture energy in any orientation as balloons spins slowly in the wind. The panels produce approximately 100 Watts of power, enough to keep Loon’s electronics running while also charging a battery for use at night. (Project Loon. (2013, June).Retrieved from https://www.google.com/loon/)

Electronics

A small box that hangs underneath the inflated envelope contain circuit boards to control the system, radio antennas to communicate with other balloons and internet antennas on the ground. (Project Loon. (2013, June).Retrieved from https://www.google.com/loon/)

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PROJECT LOON

PROBLEM

The problem with launching this project is, a potential internet security threat will be posed because google will have complete access to the internet spectrum of all the countries. It is feared that Google will have control over every bit of data that is transferred via internet which is dangerous. Also, Google will have a monopoly assuming that no company manages to initiate such a wide scale project. Google can utilize its monopoly by charging money for Project Loon usage, by marketing only Google products and by limiting the accessibility of other company’s devices on the Loon web service.

In some of the countries, Government is reluctant to approve this project because the internet connectivity using balloons will interfere with cellular transmissions of mobile operators. The proposed frequency band to be used in the Loon project of Google is being used for cellular operations and it will lead to interference with cellular transmissions.

SOLUTION

In response to the problems, a committee of people from every country should be formed to take care of the security threats. This committee will be involved in the decisions and will scrutinize every move in the project so that it does not prove to be a cyber threat to the nations all over the world.

It is required that a world organization facilitates the formation of this committee as it would require a mutual agreement amongst all the nations involved in the project. Hence this proposal should be taken to the United Nations Organization so as to facilitate the forming of the committee.

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PROJECT LOON

Benefits of Project Loon

For Google

Internet privacy is one of the major concerns of Project Loon. If a collaboration with Google and the United Nations is possible, it would be easier to sort out the security and privacy concerns and thus would ultimately help in realizing the main aims of this project. When this project was announced, many people began to wonder how Google would make any profit from this project. It seemed as if Google was spending millions of dollars on a project providing internet to billions of people without expecting any form of payment in return. But on further analysis, people realized that Google would gain more power and profit out of this project when compared to the money and time invested. The internet marketing model requires purchasers to manually install a router in their houses. With Loon as your internet connection, one would not require any external hardware. Thus, Time Warner Cable and Google’s other competitors will have a reduced market share. Also, Space Systems satellites cost more to maintain by multiple levels of magnitude than the Loon balloons which would be another advantage for Google.

For the World

It is obvious that Google will clearly be benefited by Project Loon. On the other hand, it is also a convenience for the rest of the world. The most important benefits of the project include the following.

1. Availability of Information - Assuming that all the components of the project work as planned, anyone who has a device that has wifi access will have the power to browse for any form of media online. People in remote corners of underdeveloped nations will have the capacity to transparently explore and analyze the nation’s political situation and vote properly.

2. Education - The system will have the capacity to effectively provide education to millions of uneducated children all around the world through online classes on almost any possible topic. Children will also have access to existing online resources like W3School and CodeAcademy.

3. Health and Medicine - Everyone in the world will be able to combat epidemics and adopt new drugs or medications due to the universally available data on innovations in medicine and disease outbreaks.4. Collaboration-Collaboration between individuals all over the globe will turn out to be much easier with the steady network and constant connectivity through the internet. Collaboration will

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PROJECT LOON

help provide simpler solutions to newer complicated projects. Loon’s use of renewable energy will influence and inspire future projects as well.

To: Lorraine Twohill, Vice President of Global Marketing, Google

From: Mike Cassidy, Vice President and Project Leader of Project Loon, Google

Subject: Recommendation to collaborate with United Nations to resolve security issues in Project Loon

Project Loon is being developed by Google X with the mission of providing Internet connection to remote parts of the world. The project uses high-altitude balloons placed in the stratosphere to create an aerial wireless network and this network makes it possible to provide internet services to around 5 billion people across the globe.

However, the main problem with this project is the potential internet security threat as it gives Google complete monopoly over the internet spectrum of all the countries. It is feared that this might lead to Google having complete control over every bit of data that is being transferred via the internet in every country which causes major privacy and security concerns.

In order to solve the problem, we need to set up a committee which will include members representing every country where Project Loon will be implemented. This committee will be involved in every decision related to the project and will oversee the entire project as it gets implemented. This should solve the privacy and the security issues that the project is facing.

The committee has to be formed at the earliest because the sooner the committee is formed, the easier it will be to explain the project to the committee. Also, since the committee members will be involved in the project from its initial stages, they will be able to provide better solutions to all the problems that may arise in the future stages of the project.

I feel that the United Nations will be the best choice to help us out with the entire process by communicating with other nations and helping us come to an agreement with the other countries on this matter. Hence, it is crucial that we collaborate with the United Nations within the next two weeks and start the process of forming the committee.

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PROJECT LOON

References

1) http://www.ranjaykrishna.com/1/post/2013/07/project-loon.html

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