The Global In-Flight Internet

In this paper, the concept of a new form of mobile network formed in the sky is introduced, where the mobile routers are simply the commercial aircraft. This implementation aims to eliminate two main problems arising from the current in-flight broadband implementation. The first problem is the resource management issue that may arise from the rapid increase of in-flight broadband Internet use in the near future. This could consequently limit current satellite resources, and bandwidth. The other issue is the inherent problem associated with Internet use over satellite, such as the degraded performance of delay sensitive applications due to the long propagation delay of a satellite link. A system model for data access, stable clustering of aircraft, and efficient routing schemes are introduced, which are suitable for the aeronautical mobility model. Link stability is predicted by a novel approach using Doppler shift subjected to control packets to dynamically form stable clustering and routing protocols. Another aim of this paper is to show that relative velocity between nodes is adequate as a stability metric, dominating relative distance, and this becomes evident in the simulations presented. An outline of how the new system could potentially interact with the traditional Internet using Mobile IP is also briefly discussed