Mesh networking and dirigibles have been around for
decades. What truly makes Project Loon a difficult — if not impossible —
undertaking is getting the world’s governments to agree to it.
The
balloon-powered network known as Loon may be one of Google’s famed moon shots,
but the biggest issues facing the project are grounded right here on Earth.
This won’t just be a major technological feat for Google. It will be a huge
political undertaking. I give Google credit: it’s never shied away from a
challenge. But if Loon is going to be a success, it’s going to have to wade
deeply into the morass of global international relations.
I say this
because Loon is no ordinary network – and I’m not referring to the
balloons. Google wants to build a network that knows no borders. Not only does
Google want to implement it in every country with an underserved internet
population, but the network itself will be stateless, coasting from continent
to continent.
Loon would
basically become an internet service provider above the clouds. Terrestrial
radios on the ground would link to solar-powered balloons floating 12 miles up in the stratosphere.
These balloons would link to each other to form a mesh network, bouncing
signals off one another until they reach a ground-based station with a fiber
connection to the internet. Google will have some control over where these
balloons go by navigating the wind currents, but as Google shows in its Loon
videos, its eventual plan is to set them loose in the sky, letting them follow
the west-east stratospheric winds around the world.
“If the balloons
are circling over the bottom half of the world, eventually the balloon that’s
over South Africa will pass over South America,” Google captain of moonshotsAstro Teller explained in one such video.
Well, Iran
happens to be at the same latitude as Texas. The samenetwork infrastructure floating over the U.S. will make its
way above Middle Eastern countries with which the U.S. isn’t exactly on the
best terms. I’m not
saying that’s a bad thing. The internet should transcend international
boundaries, and it does more to help international relations than it does harm.
But I doubt every world leader will see that way.
Since Loon will
use radios, it will have to use spectrum, which is tightly regulated by the
world’s governments. It can’t 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 Google’s 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 we’re not
talking about a scenario as simple as Wi-Fi, where airwaves are ultimately
shared by multiple entities. We’re 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.
Go,
go Google
I’m sure Google
has weighed all of these potential obstacles, and that makes its willingness to
push ahead all the more admirable and daring (or all the more crazy, depending
on how you look at it).
I’m certainly not
saying Google can’t accomplish its goal. Google has dealt plenty with
regulators and governments in the past, and it has already cut its teeth in the
international spectrum arena by working with governments on white space broadband.
The
Iridium Next satellite constellation
There’s also a
precedent for truly global communications providers, namely the satellite
networks that traverse the heavens. Loon is very similar to the low-Earth orbit satellite constellations built by Iridium and Globalstar(gsat) and uses the
same mesh-networking principles. Those birds zip over the globe just above the
atmosphere and ignore international borders. The main difference is that
Google’s balloons are surfing the atmospheric wind currents, while Iridium and
Globalstar are riding the Earth’s gravitational pull.
But space is
still an open frontier, loosely regulated by international treaties. Most
governments consider the stratosphere above them their sovereign airspace,
which is why they shoot down spy planes that venture into it.
Earlier today, I
participated in a panel discussion about the feasibility of Loon on HuffPost Live, in
which the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jillian York raised a telling
question: How long before some unstable government seeking to wreak havoc on
its world’s communications infrastructure starts shooting down Loon balloons
overhead?
A United Nations of broadband
Google might opt
to keep the network limited. It has some control of the movements of the
balloons. It can increase or decrease their altitude, catching cross currents.
It could feasibly keep the Loon gird centered over specific countries by
letting the balloons track back and forth. But Google’s ultimate goal seems to
be to let them float free blanketing the world in constantly shifting floating
mesh.
Loon is truly a
noble project, and, sure, Google has profit motive in connecting billions more
people to the internet. But this is how technology and communications
revolutions are born – one company with a crazy idea for a network and the
wherewithal and resources to implement it.
Technology isn’t
a barrier. Mesh networks are nothing new, and dirigibles have been around since
the time of Graf Zeppelin. The minefield here is entirely political. With every
fiber of my being I want Project Loon to succeed, and I’m actually fairly in
awe of Google for having the chutzpah to attempt it. But part of me also
believes that Google’s Project Loon’s evangelists were perhaps a bit too
idealistic in their high-school model U.N. classes.
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