###### Abstract  
Recent advances in communication systems provide an enabling technology for aircraft connection and safety. A promising communication system that uses stratospheric platforms provides an efficient and improved communication performance and can be an efficient solution for establishing communication networks for aviation. Therefore, in this paper, a novel communication network based on stratospheric basestation (SB) is proposed to provide fifth-generation (5G) and beyond services for civil aviation aircrafts to improve global flight connectivity, control, and safety. The proposed aircraft-SB network is demonstrated, and its coverage geometry is modelled and investigated. As the 5G and beyond networks use millimeter wave frequency bands (mm-wave), the performance of different atmospheric losses including gaseous absorption, rain, and fog/cloud is analyzed to investigate the system's practical feasibility at different 5G proposed frequencies ranging from 3.5 to 66 GHz through a flight model including three distinct stages which are takeoff/landing, climbing/descending, and cruise stages. Also, handover scenarios in the proposed aircraft-SB network are investigated and analyzed at the proposed 5G frequencies. In addition, the aircraft-SB 5G network is compared to the most recent low-Earth orbit (LEO) Internet satellites where the proposed system is expected to provide low latency, less atmospheric attenuation, longer aircraft-SB link duration, and very low handover rate.  
5G and beyond networks; mmWave bands; atmospheric attenuation; stratospheric platforms; Satellite communication +
Footnote †: journal: Electronics  
0000-0001-5872-2000/0000-00001-5872-2000/00000-00001-5872-2000/0000001-5872-2000/0000001-5872-2000/0000001-5872-2000/000001-5872-2000/00  
ground airport tracking and monitoring systems where several measurement data of these aircraft subsystems should be sent for analysis during flight to reduce flight accidents or the expectation of any onboard subsystems failures. Therefore, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) [2] has suggested three data domains which are needed for aviation including passenger entertainment services, aircraft information services, and aircraft control data, where all these services should be provided at high speed and with reliable Internet connection. However, the current aviation communication networks that use satellites or terrestrial networks have very limited bandwidths to provide high-speed Internet connections to onboard passengers during flight along with transmission of extensive aircraft measurement and control data. On the other hand, terrestrial high-speed broadband Internet connectivity is currently available through wireless fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks and a few Gbps data rates is expected by using massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) techniques at the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands [3; 4; 5]. However, these high data rates can be achieved at very small cell dimensions due to the high atmospheric attenuation at the mm-wave 5G frequencies [6] and requires special analysis and investigation for application in aviation systems. In addition, the current satellite communication networks [6; 7; 8; 9] have operational difficulties such as frequent handovers during the long service duration needed by aircrafts in long distance flights.  
A recent and efficient compromise solution between terrestrial and satellite systems is the stratospheric basestation (SB) which is also known as high-altitude platform (HAP) [10]. The SB is an airship that flies at stratospheric altitudes of about 20 km high and can provide high-performance communication for many applications including mobile communications, surveillance, monitoring and remote sensing. It is expected that most limitations of conventional communication systems will be mitigated by using SBs where a global area and high-performance connectivity can be provided at lower system cost relative to satellite systems.