Amazon Leo Aviation Antenna introduced; Delivers speeds of up to 1 Gbps down and 400 Mbps up simultaneously
Amazon Leo (previously known as Project Kulper) yesterday officially introduced Amazon Leo Aviation Antenna, which is said to allow commercial airline passengers and crew to enjoy high performance from their departure gate all the way to their arrival gate.
Amazon Leo Aviation Antenna
Amazon Leo is preparing to provide fast, reliable internet connectivity to a wide variety of customers, using satellites in low Earth Orbit to deliver high speeds and low latency across land, sea and skies.
While Amazon Leo Aviation Antenna has numerous design features to increase aircraft and airline operational efficiency, the most noticeable impact will be on passengers and crew connecting to the Amazon Leo network, whether that’s at cruising altitude or parked at the gate.
Its full-duplex phased array technology delivers simultaneous speeds of up to 1 Gbps download and 400 Mbps uploads while users are aboard the aircraft. A single Amazon Leo Aviation Antenna provides enough bandwidth for premium connectivity experiences across every seat class, while the airline crew can use it to improve the passenger experience operations using near-real-time information.
This antenna features some of the same core technology that powers the Leo Ultra antenna. Aviation customers will install the antenna on the exterior airframe, and the antenna will use aviation-grade connectors to link to aircraft power systems and communicate with interior systems.
The antenna’s low-profile measures 58 inches long, 30 inches wide, and 2.6 inches high (147 by 76 by 6.6cm), minimizing added aircraft drag and fuel consumption. Its simple design with an integrated modem and streamlined mounting allows for single-day installation.
As aircraft fly overhead at 580 miles per hour, the antenna connects to Amazon’s network by establishing a link to a passing Amazon Leo satellite in low Earth Orbit. It then simultaneously hands off that link from one satellite to another as the aircraft and satellites move relative to each other.
From there, the satellite communicates with Amazon’s network of gateway antennas on the ground, each of which uses its global fiber network to reach the nearest AWS edge location and then onward to the internet, a customer’s resources on AWS or another cloud provider, or a customer’s private network.
It is revealed that Amazon Leo is building more than 300 ground gateways around the world to reduce network latency and enhance resilience.
“We’ve thought through every aspect of aviation operations to build an antenna and a service that deliver performance, reliability, and efficiency—and that shows in the Amazon Leo Aviation Antenna and the industry’s response to our technology,” Trevor Vieweg, director of global business for Amazon Leo, said. “We’re thrilled to have agreements in place already with Delta and JetBlue based on the strength of our initial offering, and it’s only going to get better from here as we innovate together with our customers.”
In the coming months, the company will share more details of its in-flight connectivity solution.
