Seamless Gate-to-Gate Connectivity Concept: Onboard LTE, Wi-Fi and LAA

Aircraft is one of the last venues with no high-speed connectivity, which makes it an important research issue to address for both industry and academia. This paper introduces seamless gate-to-gate connectivity concept so that passengers can stay connected in all phases of the flight. The backhaul capacity is provided via direct air- to-ground communications links. Passengers can utilize both LTE and Wi-Fi access technologies on-board. In order to avoid interference with licensed ground LTE network, in-cabin LTE users will be served in the unlicensed spectrum via license assisted access (LAA) functionality when the aircraft is close to the ground. In this paper, we determine the altitude threshold for switching to LAA in order to provide seamless LTE connectivity. According to our analysis the myth about the 3 km threshold for the interference with the terrestrial network is not anymore valid. In addition, throughput and user data rates for LTE and Wi-Fi networks are investigated in different flight phases. We have found out that in-cabin LTE network can serve 80-240 users between 5-15 Mbps data rates, and Wi-Fi network can provide peak data rates of 14 Mbps in the worst-case scenario.