Aerial Helicopter use?

[markwiggs]

I’m very interested if anyone has used the HD4 or similar from a Helicopter, did it stand up to vibration and Heat? In our experience we have had problems with handshaking multiple towers in a built up area when we are flying at 80+knots, any personal experience would be much appreciated…

Thanks

[mldowling]

Hello @markwiggs,
This case study may be of interest to you

High altitude testing of MAX Transit LTEA system

We thought we’d share an example of what one of our clients achieved recently with a Peplink MAX Transit LTEA flying in a small plane across Northern Queensland (Australia). The official coverage maps from the carriers show no coverage in most of these areas, not to mention they do not have any details of coverage at an altitude of 3000 meters (1864 miles). Details are limited on the plane type (it was something like a single engine Cessna aircraft), here is what they had for the test: 1 x MA…

The MAX Transit may not have 4 modems or as many network ports, though if this worked this well, then it sould be fine on a Helicopter too.
Happy to Help,
Marcus

[mldowling]

Hello @wiredskyguy,
Going for bandwidth in determining the suitability is in our view (and many others we know in the industry) is mainly a “marketing ploy” used primarily for the consumer markets in an attempt to simplify a comprehensible reference point. Professionals look at the whole solution from network integrity, resilience, reliability (of which SpeedFusion is a great tool to use when setup suitably for the situation) and most importantly the ability to support the application for the client, once you have all of this, then you can look at the required bandwidth to support all of those combined in choosing the correctly balanced solution.

Not a single one of our commercial clients is interested in the just the bandwidth, all of the other points take precedence and then together with them we work out the bandwidth required and the solution to accommodate this.

As for the case study, it was not about bandwidth, it was about the ability to stay connected in the conditions shown. The client at no point of the tests was looking for bandwidth during the three hours of flying, if they did they could have possibly use an estimated 200+Gig of streaming data on the various mobile networks the system connected to, that would have potentially been very expensive as in Australia at the time the various carriers charged on average $10 per each Gig over the SIM Cards limit without a cost cap, they all would just let you spend the money and use all the data you could (consumers often refer to it as “bill shock”).

Although we nolonger have access to the clients data used in the case study, the Pepwave device was monitored though InControl2 and the signal strength being picked up by the modem, these signal strengths within Australia were a good reference for stable connectivity when used with the tested solution and the potential connectivity options that were available to use for the client with there application (for them is was in flight Wi-Fi services for passengers and to help flight crews with updating and maintaining flight plans).

With putting equipment into a Helicopter (or any aircraft) you not only need to consider the application requirements & potentially harsh environment, you also need to consider the local regulatory requirements from governing bodies in equipment to be used within an aircraft and also the way carriers will treat a SIM seen to be traversing towers at high speeds and altitude. In Australia some of this is governed by the ACMA and by CASA, similar organisations exist in almost every part of the world.

Happy to help,
Marcus