Via Geekpress, a short excerpt from Technology Review on some of the challenges involved:
Then there is the problem of constructing what amounts to an Internet in the atmosphere. On the ground, mobile communications networks are fast expanding, thanks to cellular and Wi-Fi networks. But when you get up to 10,500 meters at speeds of 700 kilometers per hour or faster, new challenges arise. To pick one technical example: today’s airborne radio links incur one bit error in every 10,000 bits sent. That’s far too unreliable for an airborne Internet. In fact, it’s 100 times worse than what’s needed for the ground-based Internet to provide even minimal service, says Dave Kenyon, an information architect at the air force’s Electronic Systems Center in Bedford, MA. The center is developing satellite-based networks that will be used by all kinds of military planes, including future unmanned planes.
But even when satellites are used, the fact remains that jets cover great distances, and that communication links will thus regularly break. “From a networking perspective, the frequent making and breaking of links will require new or improved network routing protocols,” Kenyon says. ...
To further reduce strain on the communications networks, the planes must be designed to do as much work on board as possible. For example, after collecting images of targets, a plane must do much of the processing and filtering, sending only the most relevant images back to the human controllers. “The lines of code [for flying the plane] are minuscule compared to the lines of code required for mission planning, sensor management, and getting aircraft to fly together as a team,” says Rick Ludwig, the business development manager for Northrop’s program.
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