Facebook Connecting World to the Sky

Connecting
the World
from the
Sky
Last
August,
Facebook
partnered
with
leading
technology
companies
to launch
Internet.org — a global effort to make
affordable basic internet services available to
everyone in the world.


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Connecting the world is one of the
fundamental challenges of our time. When
people have access to the internet, they can
not only connect with their friends, family
and communities, but they can also gain
access to the tools and information to help
find jobs, start businesses, access health
care, education and financial services, and
have a greater say in their societies. They get
to participate in the knowledge economy.
Building the knowledge economy is the key to
solving many of our big social and economic
challenges, and creates new growth and
opportunities for people in every country. A
recent study by Deloitte found that the
internet is already an important driver of
economic growth in many developing
countries. Expanding internet access could
create another 140 million new jobs, lift 160
million people out of poverty, and reduce
child mortality by hundreds of thousands of
lives. Connectivity isn’t an end in itself, but
it’s a powerful tool for change.
However, there are significant obstacles to
building the knowledge economy, and the
internet is growing very slowly. Today, only
around 2.7 billion people have access to the
internet — just a little more than a third of
the world’s population. That number is only
growing by about 9% every year.
If we want to connect the world, we have to
accelerate that growth. That’s our goal with
Internet.org.
Internet.org progress to date
In my last paper, I outlined a plan to deliver
basic internet services to everyone by
working to decrease the costs of connectivity,
building more efficient services that use less
data, and by partnering with mobile operators
on new models for access that can help the
industry grow while also bringing more
people onto the internet.
Since then, we’ve achieved promising early
results from our first set of partnerships. In
the Philippines, we worked with mobile
operator Globe to offer free data access to
our apps, make it easier for people to
register for a data plan and get a loan for
their plan. In just a few months we helped
double the number of people using mobile
data on Globe’s network and grew their
subscribers by 25%. In Paraguay, by working
with TIGO we were able to grow the number
of people using the internet by 50% over the
course of the partnership and increase daily
data usage by more than 50%. These two
partnerships alone helped almost 3 million
new people access the internet.
These are still early partnerships, and over
the coming years we will expand these
efforts in additional markets. By working
together with operators to drive awareness
and demand for internet services, and by
collaborating on new models for access that
decrease the cost of data, we think we can
bring billions more people onto the internet
over the next few years.
But partnerships are only part of the solution.
To connect everyone in the world, we also
need to invent new technologies that can
solve some of the physical barriers to
connectivity. That’s why Facebook in
investing in building technologies to deliver
new types of connectivity on the ground, in
the air and in space.
Different communities require different
technology
Facebook’s approach to developing new
platforms is based on the principle that
different
communities need different technical
solutions.
Our research has shown that approximately
80-90% of the world’s population lives today
in areas already covered by 2G or 3G
networks. These environments are mostly
urban or semi-urban, and the basic cell and
fiber infrastructure has already been
constructed here by mobile operators. For
most people, the obstacles to getting online
are primarily economic.
For the remaining 10-20%, the economic
challenges also apply, but in this case they
also explain why the basic network
infrastructure has yet to be built out. The
parts of the world without access to 2G or 3G
signals are often some of the most remote
places on Earth, where physical access to
communities is difficult. Deploying the same
infrastructure here that is already found in
urban environments is uneconomical as well
as impractical.
But deploying the same infrastructure
solutions for everyone is also unnecessary
when we consider the different population
densities found in different communities. In
dense urban areas, greater network capacity
is needed to serve a larger population. That
means we need to build cell towers, small
cells or a big network of wi-fi access points.
But in the less urban and less connected
markets, there are also fewer people
distributed over a wider area. Deploying
other infrastructure solutions like satellites
might be more efficient and cost effective.
Our strategy is to develop different types of
platform to serve different population
densities.
Coverage Heat Map
Platforms at different altitudes Higher
altitudes generally means beams are more
spread out on Earth, but giving more trunking
opportunities far away from the sites of
interest.
Dense urban areas: in urban environments,
wireless mesh networks can provide simple
to deploy and cost effective solutions. We will
discuss this further in a later paper.
Medium density areas: for limited
geographical regions, unmanned aerial
vehicles can pro- vide a novel and efficient
method of access. High altitude solar-
powered aircraft can be quickly deployed and
have long endurance.
Low density areas: across the largest areas of
territory with the lowest population densities,
satellites can beam internet access to the
ground. Communications satellites today are
expensive to deploy, but space-based
methods of connectivity are becoming smaller
and cheaper to launch.
Our teams in Facebook’s Connectivity Lab are
working on projects in each of these areas.
The following sections of this paper will focus
on how we’re doing this for aerial and space-
based platforms.
The physics of aerial connectivity
Before discussing the relative costs, benefits
and capabilities of these platforms, it’s
important to understand the fundamental
constraints we need to consider while
working on aerial connectivi- ty. These are
not only issues of cost, efficiency and
deployment, but also the basic laws of
physics.
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The most important constraint to consider is
that as you increase altitude, assuming all
else is equal, the signals emitted by aerial
platforms cover a wider area and therefore
become weaker. More specifically, the power
of a radio signal weakens as a square of
distance.
If you consider cell towers, they can provide
really strong signals across relatively small
areas. And stronger signals creates the ability
to deliver higher capacity. A plane at an
altitude of 20 kilometers will allow you to
reach people more than 100 kilometers away,
but the signal loss will be significantly higher
than would occur for terrestrial networks.
And if you send up a satellite that can beam
internet across an entire continent, it might
have wide reach across a large territory, but
its signal will be a lot weaker than almost any
other option for connecting.
Boosting the signal in order to achieve a high
bandwidth capacity is also very impractical.
Radio signals get weak very quickly, so they
require a large amount of power to
strengthen. Since satellites generally rely on
solar power as their energy source,
generating a lot of power (would need to
square to make up the difference) would
mean constructing either huge, unstable
structures, which are impractical, or nuclear
powered satellites, which are very expensive.
So physics creates a number of challenges for
deploying aerial platforms for connectivity,
and creates different costs and benefits for
each platform. For lower population densities,
where people are spread out across a large
area, the higher up you go, the more cost
effective it becomes to place trunk stations
and to deliver the internet. But signal loss
will also be higher, so satellite access is only
really a way of providing a basic internet
experience for remote communities.
Likewise, for high population densities, only
lower altitude platforms will be truly
effective, and connection speeds will be
faster and the experience better for a lot of
people.
Given these challenges, Facebook is working
on a range of technologies that will provide
dif- ferent options for connecting people.
Free space optics
Free space optical communication, or FSO, is
a way of using light to transmit data through
Physics of electromagnetic propagation As
radio waves or light propagate, everything
else being equal, at a distance 4x from the
source, a signal is 16 times weaker than at a
distance 1x.
space. These are basically invisible laser
beams in the infrared part of the spectrum.
FSO is a promising technology that potentially
allows us to dramatically boost the speed of
internet connections provided by any of the
previously mentioned platforms. The lasers
used in FSO systems provide extremely high
bandwidths and capacity, on par with
terrestrial fiber optic networks, but they also
consume much less power than microwave
systems. Because you can make the beam so
much narrower, this allows you to focus all of
your power exactly where you want it to go.
Using FSO technology could boost the signals
being sent from Earth to orbit, and then be-
tween satellites in an orbital constellation.
Potentially, the same system can also
dramatically increase the speed of internet
connections on the ground that are provided
by satellite. If a laser receiver is mounted at
a destination, a laser-equipped satellite can
transmit data to it. Using FSO to connect
people on the ground would dramatically
increase the utility of satellites in providing
internet access to larger segments of
unconnected populations.
At the same time, FSO has a number of
significant weaknesses. The narrow optical
beams are hard to orient correctly and need
to be pointed very precisely. The level of
accuracy required is the equivalent of
needing to hit a dime from 10 miles away, or
hit the statue of liberty from California. Laser
systems also require line of sight between
both ends of the laser link, meaning that they
don’t work through clouds and are very
vulnerable to bad weather conditions. As a
result, backup radio systems are needed.
Despite these weaknesses, if we can
overcome these problems, FSO can provide
ways to con- nect people that are a lot better
and more cost effective. We’ve already
started hiring world experts on FSO, and
we’re going to invest in exploring the full
potential of this technology over the coming
years.
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Drones and High Altitude Long Endurance
systems
High altitude drones are one major area we’re
focused on developing. To understand the
reasons for this, it is helpful to consider
some of our technical constraints.
We want to:
• Fly as close to the ground as possible in
order to maximize signal strength.
• Fly at a high enough altitude where the wind
is not very strong in order to maximize
endurance.
• Fly outside of regulated airspace for safety
and quick deployment.
• Be able to precisely control the location of
these aircraft, unlike balloons.
• Build the smallest structure possible so it
requires minimal energy to stay aloft.
• Build a large enough structure that can
effectively harvest all the energy it needs
from the sun.
• Build the cheapest structure so we can cost
effectively produce enough to span many
areas.
• Build a re-usable structure to make it more
cost effective as well.
Based on these constraints, drones operating
at 65,000 feet are ideal. At this altitude, a
drone can broadcast a powerful signal that
covers a city-sized area of territory with a
medium pop- ulation density. This is also
close to the lowest altitude for unregulated
airspace, and a layer in the atmosphere that
has very stable weather conditions and low
wind speeds. This means an aircraft can easily
cruise and conserve power, while generating
power through its solar panels during the day
to store in its batteries for overnight use.
With the efficiency and endurance of high
altitude drones, it’s even possible that
aircraft could remain aloft for months or
years. This means drones have more
endurance than balloons, while also being
able to have their location precisely
controlled. And unlike satellites, drones won’t
burn up in the atmosphere when their
mission is complete. Instead, they can be
easily returned to Earth for maintenance and
redeployment.
We’re still finalizing the communication
equipment payload, including FSO systems. If
the technical hurdles can be overcome with
free space optics, the value of this solution
will only increase. But even equipped with
microwave antennae, this system can
potentially connect a lot more people to the
internet in an efficient and cost effective
way.
Our team is actively working on building our
first aircraft now. We recently announced that
key members from Ascenta, whose founders
created early versions of Zephyr, which
became the world’s longest flying solar-
powered unmanned aircraft, will be joining
our Connectivity Lab to work
on these aircraft. We expect to have an initial
version of this system working in the near
future.
Satellites and low population density areas
Despite the clear strengths of drone-based
connectivity solutions, there will still be
places where it remains uneconomical or
impractical to deploy drones or to provide the
internet connection to them. In these
situations, satellites may prove a cheaper
alternative for beaming internet access to
communities.
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There are two main types of orbits that
Facebook is considering for deploying
satellites: low Earth orbit (LEO) and
geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO).
Low Earth orbit Low Earth orbit extends
anywhere from 160 kilometers to 2,000
kilometers above the Earth. As a LEO satellite
orbits, the Earth turns underneath. LEO is the
simplest and easiest orbit to reach, and this
is why the vast majority of satellites are
deployed here.
LEO satellites have some clear strengths.
Satellites in this orbit are close to Earth, so
they can provide a usable signal while using
less power. This means LEO satellites can be
smaller and therefore cheaper to launch.
There’s also comparatively less signal latency
at this orbit, so it’s easier to use real-time
services like the web or voice calling.
However, the signal is still weak and can only
serve a small population density – probably
less than 100 people per square kilometer. It
also requires antennas to be installed at
ground stations to track their movements.
And because LEO satellites don’t orbit at the
same speed as the Earth spins, an entire
constellation of satellites is necessary to
maintain constant coverage. This drives up
the cost considerably.
Geosynchronous Earth orbit A
geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the
Earth at the same speed that the planet is
rotating at. To hold an orbit at this distance
from the planet, a satellite holds steady at
35,786 kilometers above sea levels.
A satellite in this orbit can stay pointed at
one region indefinitely. This means the base
stations and trunk stations can be simpler
and cheaper to configure since the beams
don’t need to be constantly tracking the
moving constellations of satellites overhead.
As discussed earlier, with FSO technology it
becomes possible to achieve much faster data
speeds. With conventional microwave signals,
it’s much harder to deliver a high capacity
signal
as a geosynchronous satellite is 60-90 times
further away. Since signals weaken as a
square of distance, this becomes orders of
magnitude worse.
This FSO approach is much harder for LEO
because of satellite movement, but there are
still considerable technical challenges to be
solved here.
Satellites are expensive and slow to develop
Ultimately, space platforms are much more
complex to develop and deploy than other
com- peting technologies. Even if you can
build satellites for relatively cheaply,
transport to space can cost millions — or in
some cases tens or hundreds of millions — of
dollars.
Navigating the regulatory issues can be a slow
and expensive process too. ITU licenses for
reg- ulated microwave spectrum can take 5-7
years to achieve, though FSO remains
unregulated.
In spite of the challenges, satellites offer the
potential to deliver connectivity solutions
when all others fail. We’re currently
exploring both LEO and geosynchronous
approaches.
Deployment
From our work examining the different
technologies for offering aerial solutions for
connec- tivity, it’s clear that each platform
has strengths and weaknesses. Some of these
weaknesses will have to be fully solved in
order to make the platforms viable and cost
effective.
One major advantage of aerial connectivity,
however, is that deployment to people’s
homes is relatively simple.
Relatively cheap devices already exist that
can receive signals from the sky and
broadcast wi-fi to mobile phones. These take
the form of simple and durable boxes, and
can become cheaper and capable of handling
more kinds of signals over time. Even if
everyone doesn’t own one, someone in a
village or community still may – a local store
that wants to attract customers, a community
hub or non-governmental organizations
working in the area. Civil society organiza-
tions and governments would be ideal for
disseminating these units throughout
communities in developing countries.
This is a very different scenario from typical
terrestrial network deployments. Installing
tradi- tional network infrastructure, like cell
towers and fiber, requires digging. This
means manual construction, modifying
structures and building other physical
infrastructure, and lots of reg- ulatory
approval. Having a network that depends on
lots of facilities and hardware on the
ground also makes your network subject to
the insecurities of the ground – theft, looting,
war and natural disasters.
By comparison, aerial connectivity is
relatively plug-and-play. You can get an
internet box and pick up signal from whatever
is overhead.
Our approach
I hope this paper provides an interesting and
useful overview of some of the technologies
that can help bring internet access to
everyone in the world.
Facebook’s Connectivity Lab is building a
team to develop these technologies, including
areas such as drones, satellites, mesh
networks, radios and free space optics, as
well as other prom- ising areas of research.
We’ve hired some of the leading experts in
these fields from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab,
Ames Research Center and other centers of
aerospace research. If you’re excited about
working on this mission, we’d love to talk to
you too.
Internet.org is a partnership between
companies, non-profits and governments. No
one company can do this work by itself, and
Facebook will not deploy these technologies
alone. We’re looking forward to working with
our partners and operators worldwide over
the coming months and years. Together we
can develop new solutions to these important
problems, and deliver on the promise of a
connected world.