IEEE 802.15.4 TSCH for Avionics Applications

Wireless Aircraft Intra-Communication (WAIC) emerges as a pivotal innovation, revolutionizing different legacy communication systems and fostering improved levels of effi-ciency, safety, and connectivity in aircraft. Transitioning to WAIC networks provides a significant advancement in weight benefits and solutions to the challenges inherent in current wired systems. Reliability being one of the critical requirements, this paper investigates the suitability of IEEE 802.15.4 Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) networks along with additional diversity techniques such as multi-radio and multicast transmission for various avionic applications. An analytical approach to establishing the wireless link level requirements (in terms of packet delivery ratio) from the system level requirements is provided with an example of an avionics application, the Fuel Inert Gas System. The performance of IEEE 802.15.4 networks, along with various reliability enhancement approaches, is experimentally evaluated in a controlled propagation lab environment. The evaluations reveal that IEEE 802.15.4 TSCH by itself and, when combined with the multi-radio interface, achieves a reliability of nearly 100%. The multicast transmission approach evaluated with four end nodes and four gateways earned > 99.5% overall packet delivery ratio (PDR) from each data source. The experimental results reveal that IEEE 802.15.4 TSCH is a promising WAIC candidate for several avionic applications and when combined with diversity techniques, it has the potential to replace up to 50 % of current electrical wiring interconnection systems (EWIS) leading to a weight saving of 150 kg on narrow-body aircraft.