OFDM PLC transmission for aircraft flight control system

In the new civil aircrafts, hydraulic flight control systems are being replaced by electrically powered controls. The main interests are a better flexibility and a decrease in maintenance costs. Though the electrical wiring will replace the hydraulic tubing, it is essential to limit as much as possible the amount of electrical wiring. In order to decrease the total wires length, it is proposed to use power line communications (PLC) technology for data transmission over a high voltage direct current (HVDC) network for flight control system (FCS). However, PLC for safety-critical avionic systems are rarely studied. This paper is the first step of a PLC physical layer development for aircraft FCS. In this paper, a parametric study for an OFDM PLC transmission between the control unit and the electrically powered actuators for FCS is developed. This study takes into account the channel characteristics, the electromagnetic compatibility, the hardware and the aeronautical constraints. The purpose is to define the frequency transmission bandwidth, the number of subcarriers and the maximum constellation size for the OFDM transmission.