Amazon Leo Aviation Antenna targets inflight connectivity

Amazon Leo says its Aviation Antenna will support up to 1 Gbps downloads for passengers and crew. And it will support up to 400 Mbps upload speeds. Measuring 147 by 76 by 6.6 centimetres, the full-duplex antenna has a low-profile and no moving parts.

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According to Amazon, it shares some shares some technology with the Leo Ultra antenna – planned for consumer broadband access – but it needed to be purpose-built for the demands of aviation. The company – formerly known as Project Kuiper – says it will provide enough bandwidth for a “premium connectivity experience”. It writes:

“As aircraft fly overhead at 580 miles per hour (933 kilometers per hour), the antenna connects to our network by establishing a link to a passing Amazon Leo satellite in low Earth orbit. It then seamlessly 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 our network of gateway antennas on the ground, each of which uses our 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.”

Amazon Leo

Amazon Leo says it is building 300 ground gateways around the world to reduce network latency and improve network resilience.

What about over oceans, polar routes, and remote places far from such gateways? The satellites will use laser links. These will transmit data between each other and relay user data to and from the nearest ground gateways.

“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,” said Trevor Vieweg, director of global business for Amazon Leo. “We’re thrilled to have agreements in place already with Delta and JetBlue based on the strength of our initial offering.”

Image: Amazon Leo

See also: Amazon’s Project Kuiper building satellite-processing facility at Kennedy Space Center