Experimental evaluation of SKYMESH using terrestrial nodes

This paper proposes a link setup method of “SKYMESH,” which is an ad hoc communication system, temporarily established in the sky by balloons holding communication nodes. The SKYMESH can be used as emergency communication systems when telecommunication infrastructure is damaged for large-scale natural disaster. It was reported that a link between balloons was unstable due to swing of balloons. This paper proposes a link setup method by using terrestrial nodes. A terrestrial node with two directional antennas can be used between balloon nodes to replace an inter-balloon link with two balloon-terrestrial links. The communication distance of the terrestrial-balloon link can be extended with better communication quality. We performed experiments of communication quality measurement in Niigata University campus area from August to September in 2009. As a result, the distance between balloon-to-terrestrial-to-balloon nodes can be extended about ten times as long as that of a link between balloons with stable communication quality.