Radio Altimeter Tolerance of Wireless Avionics Intra-Communications Systems

Avionics in modern aircraft have multiple redundant wiring paths in case of failure. The aerospace industry acquired spectrum for wireless avionics which would reduce the amount of necessary wiring, but must prove compatibility with the radio altimeters incumbent to the band for certification. This work covers the development of a reference test bed validated by radio altimeter and aircraft manufacturers. This test bed was automated in a modular framework which allowed the rapid modification of software to suit a wide variety of test conditions. This work also covers the three altimeter testing regimens which used this test bed, and the development of reporting formats which supported the creation of international standards based on these results

Radio Altimeter Tolerance of Wireless Avionics Intra-Communications Systems

Avionics in modern aircraft have multiple redundant wiring paths in case of failure. The aerospace industry acquired spectrum for wireless avionics which would reduce the amount of necessary wiring, but must prove compatibility with the radio altimeters incumbent to the band for certification. This work covers the development of a reference test bed validated by radio altimeter and aircraft manufacturers. This test bed was automated in a modular framework which allowed the rapid modification of software to suit a wide variety of test conditions. This work also covers the three altimeter testing regimens which used this test bed, and the development of reporting formats which supported the creation of international standards based on these results

Airborne Wireless Sensor Networks for Airplane Monitoring System

In traditional airplane monitoring system (AMS), data sensed from strain, vibration, ultrasound of structures or temperature, and humidity in cabin environment are transmitted to central data repository via wires. However, drawbacks still exist in wired AMS such as expensive installation and maintenance, and complicated wired connections. In recent years, accumulating interest has been drawn to performing AMS via airborne wireless sensor network (AWSN) system with the advantages of flexibility, low cost, and easy deployment. In this review, we present an overview of AMS and AWSN and demonstrate the requirements of AWSN for AMS particularly. Furthermore, existing wireless hardware prototypes and network communication schemes of AWSN are investigated according to these requirements. This paper will improve the understanding of how the AWSN design under AMS acquires sensor data accurately and carries out network communication efficiently, providing insights into prognostics and health management (PHM) for AMS in future

An efficient, secure and trusted channel protocol for avionics wireless networks

Avionics networks rely on a set of stringent reliability and safety requirements. In existing deployments, these networks are based on a wired technology, which supports these requirements. Furthermore, this technology simplifies the security management of the network since certain assumptions can be safely made, including the inability of an attacker to access the network, and the fact that it is almost impossible for an attacker to introduce a node into the network. The proposal for Avionics Wireless Networks (AWNs), currently under development by multiple aerospace working groups, promises a reduction in the complexity of electrical wiring harness design and fabrication, a reduction in the total weight of wires, increased customization possibilities, and the capacity to monitor otherwise inaccessible moving or rotating aircraft parts such as landing gear and some sections of the aircraft engines. While providing these benefits, the AWN must ensure that it provides levels of safety that are at minimum equivalent to those offered by the wired equivalent. In this paper, we propose a secure and trusted channel protocol that satisfies the stated security and operational requirements for an AWN protocol. There are three main objectives for this protocol. First, the protocol has to provide the assurance that all communicating entities can trust each other, and can trust their internal (secure) software and hardware states. Second, the protocol has to establish a fair key exchange between all communicating entities so as to provide a secure channel. Finally, the third objective is to be efficient for both the initial start-up of the network and when resuming a session after a cold and/or warm restart of a node. The proposed protocol is implemented and performance measurements are presented based on this implementation. In addition, we formally verify our proposed protocol using CasperFDR.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables, IEEE DAS

Passive Wireless Sensor Technology (PWST) 2012 Workshop Plan

No abstract availabl

Wireless Sensor Needs Defined by SBIR Topics

This slide presentation reviews the needs for wireless sensor technology from various U.S. government agencies as exhibited by an analysis of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) solicitations. It would appear that a multi-agency group looking at overlapping wireless sensor needs and technology projects is desired. Included in this presentation is a review of the NASA SBIR process, and an examination of some of the SBIR projects from NASA, and other agencies that involve wireless sensor developmen