Power Line Communications for Avionics Systems: Robustness Against Electromagnetic Compatibility

Electrification of numerous aircraft systems over the course of the past decades has caused a significant increase in weight and complexity of onboard power and data networks, and this trend is expected to continue on the road towards sustainable aviation. Hybrid data networks that combine conventional cabling with wireless technologies and power line communication have the potential to yield data networks with reduced weight. However, in doing so, safety should not be compromised. Therefore, this paper presents the results of a measurement campaign that was carried out to investigate the robustness of Power Line Communications with respect to Electromagnetic Compatibility. The tests include conducted susceptibility, as well as conducted and radiated emissions. Three different wiring configurations were tested, being a single wire and bifilar wire with structure as return, complemented by a wire pair with dedicated return wire. Overall, except for the single wire case, Power Line Communications performed well on all tests, with the bifilar wiring case slightly outperforming the wire pair case. Resonance phenomena observed in conducted emission results are explained by additional simulations.