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A comment on Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones.

Re:Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones by cmurf on Friday July 24, 2015 @06:41PM (#9945679)
Today, we're still using AM line of sight radio, on a frequency that can only accept one transmission at a time.

First innovate a better system for drones. Then replace the legacy ATC system in stages for Class A, Class B, Class C, Class E IFR, and finally Class E VFR. And only then can the altitude restriction on drones be lifted, and integrated into the rest of the ATC system. But even getting Class A and B under the same modern and scalable system as drones, even if they aren't sharing airspace, is something pilots, airlines, ATC, and the FAA have needed/wanted for a long time.

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Re:Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones by ytdht on Friday July 24, 2015 @07:33PM (#9945861)
Enabling Super Wi-Fi[1] nation-wide would be a good start to a better system for wireless communications for drones and other internet-connected devices

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Wi-Fi

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Re:Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones by w-ll on Friday July 24, 2015 @08:23PM (#9946019)
I actually worked with Spectrum Bridge and the city on the implementation in Wilmington, North Carolina while in college.

At the time it was called 'Whitespace Wifi' and we actually had a handful of services other than public wi-fi. It was good fun.

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Re:Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones by ytdht on Friday July 24, 2015 @09:23PM (#9946196)
Do you know of any plans to expand it further? or was there any substantial problems discovered that could not be solved?
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Re:Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones by cmurf on Friday July 24, 2015 @08:49PM (#9946112)
Does it work at 45000'? Seems ideal to have one comm system for low and high altitudes, but at least there should be at most two and no gap in coverage.
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Re:Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones by ytdht on Friday July 24, 2015 @09:17PM (#9946184)
I would think so because analog TV over the air was able to travel more then 9 miles, but I don't think that toy drones can go that high, but that will probably change...
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Re:Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones by cmurf on Saturday July 25, 2015 @05:35PM (#9949122)
Analog TV transmitters were using serious wattage, and it was only transmitting. Wifi will have a lot less transmission wattage and it has to have a lot or reception sensitivity and hundreds maybe thousands of clients. So it's an interesting problem.
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