What is beamforming?

In our previous posts (LEO vs GEO: A quick primer and Air-to-Ground Connectivity: How Does It Work?), we broke down the key differences between satellite-based connectivity and Air-to-Ground (ATG) systems. This post discusses beamforming, one of the key functions that enables an ATG network to assign a separate connection to each aircraft, delivering private, consistent and reliable inflight connectivity with no shared bandwidth.

Beamforming is an ATG signal processing technique for transferring data to and from an aircraft. Beamforming is performed by both the transmitting tower on the ground and the antenna on the aircraft. Antennas are installed on the bottom of the aircraft, and as the plane moves through the sky at altitude, the antenna attaches to a single beam from the optimal tower and sector, handing off as the aircraft moves throughout the network of towers situated across the continental United States.

During any flight, a moving aircraft will connect to a beam for no more than 30 seconds before it automatically connects to a new beam and establishes a new connection. SmartSky offers more than 30,000 beams across the continental United States and delivers groundbreaking connectivity capabilities for customers and their passengers.

With SmartSky's patented beamforming technology, each tower assigns a separate, private connection to each individual aircraft. This unshared connection allows for maximum bandwidth for real-time data transfer both to and from the aircraft, delivering continuous data flow for passengers needs and all aircraft connectivity such as situational awareness, performance and maintenance information. This enables the connectivity the passengers want and the information the cockpit and operations need.