In-Flight Broadband Connectivity: Architectures and Business Models for High Capacity Air-to-Ground Communications

In-Flight Broadband Connectivity (IFBC) is a significant open market for mobile network operators, considering that more than 3.3 billion passengers were served by airlines in 2015. On-board broadband services are provided via air-to-ground (A2G) connectivity through direct A2G communication (DA2GC) and satellite A2G communication (SA2GC). Available on-board connectivity systems have significant limitations: high latency in SA2GC and low capacity in DA2GC. The customer expectancy is multi-Mb/s connections in every seat, which leads to capacity requirements of Gb/s to the aircraft. Creation of high capacity IFBC requires a collaborative interaction between different industry partners. For this reason, we investigate A2G architectures in terms of economic and technical perspectives, and propose business models by identifying new roles and positioning them in the A2G business ecosystem. In addition, we provide an extensive summary of the state-of-the-art and future improvements for A2G communications.