High Altitude Relay and Router (HARR)

摘要

This report describes the development and test of processing and transponding payload configurations for the High Altitude Relay and Router (HARR) project. This work was performed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to support a viable long-range end-to-end mobile ad hoc wireless network in a tactical environment. HARR has the potential to provide closed network communications and other tactical capabilities between nodes separated by up to 200 miles at a reduced cost as compared to other existing technologies. HARR achieves these results by flying its payloads in untethered balloons at near- space altitudes around 20,000 m (approximately 65,000 ft), providing a relay capability over a substantial area of operation. The report describes the design and integration of the airborne and ground node systems that make up this network, and analyzes test data collected using unicast and multicast transport protocols in an IP-based environment. The field test data discussed in this report was collected at Lubbock, Texas, in June 2006. Additional followup testing was conducted through the summer and fall of 2006 at NRL in Washington, DC.