Google's more than just an internet giant. Ever since the company's inception, they've also worked toward some very ambitious long-term technology goals. One of these early projects was Loon, an attempt to bring high-speed internet access to remote areas by using balloons. While Loon is no more, Aalyria is giving Loon's ideas some new attention.
Aalyria Technologies is a startup company founded by veteran members of Google's research and development team. Their mission is to develop and manage ultra-fast, ultra-secure communications networks all around the world (and beyond).
Some of the company's goals include using former Loon software and reinventing it into a cloud-based way to manage networks that give high-speed internet access to remote objects. Planes, sea vessels, and satellites all face unique challenges when it comes to transmitting and receiving data and Aalyria aims to make that faster, safer, and easier. If they succeed, they'll be the primary platform allowing these objects to connect.
Back when Loon still existed, wireless networking technology called “Project Sonora” connected different pieces of aerospace tech. It's what's called a “free-space optical communication system,” or a system that uses lasers to send signals across distances in the form of light. Aalyria has since renamed this technology “Tightbeam.”
If this sounds complicated, it is. Physical obstructions like clouds can cause problems transmitting and receiving a signal, as can extreme temperatures and inclement weather. Part of Aalyria's focus is to overcome these challenges and make lasers a more workable means of creating and managing connectivity. A combination of innovative hardware and machine learning algorithms is used to observe and account for the kind of distortions caused by these factors and “clean up” the resulting signal. As an example, Aalyria's improved technology could take a signal sent through dense fog, remove the interference, and produce a clearer, smoother signal. The result is the ability to send information almost 1,000 times faster than current methods can.
That's not all, either. Loon also used proprietary software, which has since been renamed “Spacetime.” Spacetime is meant to respond in real time to rapidly changing network needs. In Loon's day, it was used to distribute a high-speed internet connection across a series of balloons floating at high altitude. Its primary function is to observe and predict when an asset—like a satellite, for example—is about to lose contact with a ground station so the software can immediately send a new signal its way. The more entities adopt Spacetime, the better it can help users share network and spectrum resources around the world and into space.
As more and more satellite constellations go up and more remote areas require internet connectivity, it'll be necessary to leverage as many ways of transmitting high-speed, secure signals as possible. With these odd elements of old Loon tech combined, Aalyria has a way to send information over long distances at incredibly high speeds, and make sure that that information can reach planes, ships, and even space without interruption.
The company's goal to make laser-based communication systems viable is a very ambitious one. The idea of transmitting information optically isn't a new one, but it's one that has already failed repeatedly at providing high-speed, long-distance connections. As mentioned above, a lot can go wrong when it comes to transmitting a signal optically—anything that blocks or distorts it will render the signal pretty much unusable. Aalyris claims to have overcome the problems associated with laser-based communication tech, but that doesn't necessarily mean that investors believe them. Some detractors point out that the obstacles faced by laser-based optical communications are rooted in physics and the ability to remove them is limited at best. As a result, the company may face significant hurdles when it comes to finding adopters for their tech.
Aalyria is taking the best elements of Loon and putting them to new use. While there are a lot of issues inherent to laser-based communications, Aalyria's Tightbeam technology promises to overcome them and make lasers a reliable, viable means of transmitting secure, ultra-fast signals over the land, across the oceans, and up into space.
