A Localizable Wireless Communication Node with Remote Powering for Onboard Operations

In this paper we present the "3Node", which is a versatile wireless node that exploits radio frequency (RF) transmission for three tasks: communication, localization, and remote powering. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first avionics wireless node, which incorporates these three RF functions. The 3Node is tailored to operate onboard aerospace platforms, meeting RF radiation requirements, form factors, etc., and extended by the purpose at hand, e.g., sensing. In this paper, we present a prototypic proof of concept (POC) node, entirely based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, essentially just an ultra-wideband (UWB) transceiver and an industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band remote powering receiver. The POC is designed to fulfill aerospace spectrum regulations by band-limiting the UWB signal to the wireless avionics intra-communications (WAIC) band and adjusting the output power. Our measurements show a localization accuracy of ±10cm inside an aircraft cabin mockup and a maximum data rate of 3Mbit/s. Additionally, the impact of an onboard radio altimeter (RA) on the communication performance is analyzed. Finally, we describe the wireless remote powering feature, detailing the resulting operational modes for the 3Node.