Distributed beamforming with high altitude balloon relays

In this paper, we propose an aerial relay layer composed of a swarm of high altitude balloon nodes. These nodes are deployed as a large distributed array, allowing spatial reuse of precious bandwidth through adaptive beamforming. Creating multi-fold increases in spectrum efficiency using the distributed sparse array requires advanced adaptive processing at a ground station. In this paper, we will develop the fundamental limits of such a system, show simulation results for scenarios of interest, and provide flight test results from the system.