Fly-By-Wireless for Next Generation Aircraft: Challenges and Potential solutions

”Fly-By-Wireless” paradigm based on wireless connectivity in aircraft has the potential to improve efficiency and flexibility, while reducing weight, fuel consumption and maintenance costs. In this paper, first, the opportunities and challenges for wireless technologies in safety-critical avionics context are discussed. Then, the assessment of such technologies versus avionics requirements is provided in order to select the most appropriate one for a wireless aircraft application. As a result, the design of a Wireless Avionics Network based on Ultra WideBand technology is investigated, considering the issues of determinism, reliability and security

Spectrum sensing for cognitive wireless applications inside aircraft cabins

Wireless intra-aircraft communication is expected to be the enabler for more flexible avionic systems and the reduction of weight and cost in system installations. An alternative to the usage of a dedicated frequency band for wireless intra-aircraft avionics could be the usage of a virtually unregulated ISM band. Cognitive radio techniques could be used to increase system robustness in the likely case of interferences in this kind of frequency bands. A cognitive wireless cabin management system is discussed as a use-case for the validation of this approach. Using the mobile cognitive radio testbed of the FP7 project CREW, spectrum sensing experiments are carried out in a realistic aircraft cabin environment as a baseline for the development of suitable cognitive protocols and to record interference scenarios for the further system design

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

Interference Mitigation in WAIC Systems

Advancements in the field of wireless communications in the last few decades have made it an indispensable part of how human made entities, and by extension, humans interact with each other. The inherent lack of the need for significant physical infrastructure brings with it great advantages in terms of mobility, operational and maintenance costs, and overall reliability and flexibility. The characteristics of wireless techniques make for an attractive proposition for enabling operational communications in aircrafts. However, wireless networks bring with them their own set of challenges in terms of range, dependability or susceptibility to interference and security. The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate different wireless communications techniques for their feasibility to be employed as Wireless Avionics Intra-Communications (WAIC) systems. The major hindrance in ensuring reliable communications in this regard comes from the operation of the existing Radio Altimeter systems in the allotted frequency band of 4.2 - 4.4 GHz. WAIC systems based on wireless techniques such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) have been simulated in MATLAB for the analysis. The performance of the WAIC systems in the presence of interference from Altimeter signals and Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) has been evaluated and studied

Towards wireless technology for safety critical systems.

Wireless technology provides an unprecedented level of design flexibility for new system designs and legacy system updates. However, there are several challenges which present themselves when adopting wireless technologies for use in safety systems. This paper elaborates on available design techniques which can resolve the implementation issues for a given application, to ensure data communication between nodes is safe (deterministic), secure, reliable and available.N/

Secure Wireless Avionics Intra-Communications the SCOTT approach

Paper presented at DecPS 2018 (held in conjunction with Ada-Europe 2018, 18-22 June, Lisbon, Portugal).This paper presents the objectives and architecture of the use case of secure wireless avionics intracommunications of the European Project SCOTT (secure connected trustable things). SCOTT aims to build trust of the Internet of Things (IoT) in industrial applications. SCOTT addresses multiple issues such as security, safety, privacy, and dependability across 5 industrial domains: automotive, aeronautics, railway, building and healthcare. The aeronautics use case focuses on the application for active flow control (AFC) based on dense wireless sensor and actuator networks (DWSANs). Topics about security, vulnerabilities and safety in the general field of wireless avionics intra-communications (WAICs) will be addressed. The paper presents preliminary conclusions of the vulnerabilities and security solutions across different entities and layers of the aeronautics IoT architecture.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio