ITU-R REPORT M.2197 PDF

Introduction

The commercial aviation industry is developing the next generation of aircraft to provide airlines and the flying public more cost-efficient, safer, and more reliable aircraft. One important way of doing this is to reduce aircraft weight. It is believed that wireless technologies can reduce the weight of systems on an aircraft thereby providing significant cost savings. Reducing the amount of fuel required to fly can also reduce costs and benefit the environment.

Installed wireless avionics intra-communications (WAIC) systems are one way to derive these benefits. WAIC systems consist of radiocommunications between two or more points on a single aircraft. Points of communication may include integrated wireless components and/or installed components of the system. In all cases communication is assumed to be part of a closed, exclusive network required for operation of the aircraft. WAIC systems do not provide air-to-ground or air-toair communications. It is anticipated that WAIC systems will only be used for safety-related aircraft applications Also, WAIC systems transmissions may not be limited to the interior of the aircraft structure, depending on the type of aircraft. For example, sensors mounted on the wings or engines could communicate with systems within the airplane. WAIC systems may be used on regional, business, wide-body, and two-deck aircraft, as well as helicopters. These different aircraft types may place different requirements on the WAIC systems and may also impact the type of propagation path between the WAIC transmitter and receiver.

As the reliance on wireless technology continues to expand, the use of WAIC systems to transmit information important to the safe and efficient operation of an aircraft may provide significant advantages over current wired systems.

This Report focuses on technical characteristics and operational objectives of potential WAIC systems on a single aircraft and does not include bandwidth requirements. The discussion on candidate frequency bands is also not addressed in this Report. This Report does not cover the impact of using wireless technologies for this purpose.