Wireless Solutions for Aircrafts Based on Optical Wireless Communications and Power Line Communications

To implement wireless communications in aircrafts, the most important concern is the interference of wireless devices to aircraft navigation and communication systems. This chapter investigates the powerline communications (PLC)‐optical wireless communications (OWC) solution for wireless communications in airplane cabins. At first, it discusses the PLC channel model and the estimated capacity. Next, the chapter investigates OWC performance in airplane cabin, when LED is used as transmitter. The cabin environment model is established by the interior dimensions of a typical Boeing 737‐900 commercial plane. Using this model, the chapter shows the simulation of visible light propagation characteristics, and calculation of power and delay‐spread distributions. In addition, based on the impulse response matrix obtained, it illustrates the simulation of BER distribution, and explores BER outage probabilities versus bitrates. PLC‐OWC provides an economical, lightweight, high‐speed, energy‐saving, and electromagnetic interference (EMI)‐free solution.