Communication schemes for aerospace wireless sensors

Wireless communications has been a preferred and reliable data transmission means in many aerospace applications, including flight-critical ones. The aerospace industry should consider replacing some aerial-vehicle sensor wiring with wireless communications; the related sensors are referred to as aerospace wireless sensors (AWSs). This replacement can lower the weight of aerial-vehicle wiring and thus lead to increased payload capacity. It can also improve the overall safety of aerial vehicles via reducing wiring problems, ease the design of aerial-vehicle structures for running wiring, and lower the sensor installation and maintenance cost. The major concern for using AWSs is whether they will negatively affect the overall reliability and safety of the aerial vehicles. In this paper, the feasibility of using AWSs is discussed. In particular, the employment of wireless communication schemes is studied in terms of immunity to jamming signals, interference to other on-board wireless systems, simultaneous data transmission from multiple AWSs, and low detectability to unintended parties. We recommend using the code-division multiple-access (CDMA) scheme and demonstrate its feasibility in terms of communication performance.