Wireless Avionics Intra-Communication (WAIC) QoS Measurements of an Ultra Wideband (UWB) Device for Low-Data Rate Transmissions

Abstract

The intra-aircraft communication systems have been largely dependent on wired connectivity in the past decades. This dependency leads to increased aircraft weight, inflexibility in cabin design, and higher maintenance costs. Hence, the increase in reliability and resilience of wireless communication systems in the past decade provides a lucrative opportunity for the aircraft industry. This led to the formation of the Wireless Avionics Intra-Communication (WAIC) initiative. WAIC specifies a frequency band and the QoS requirements for the wireless systems in the next generation of aircraft. So, in this paper, a study is performed to measure the QoS performance of an Ultra-Wideband (UWB) based WAIC system for low-data rate communications inside an aircraft. The measurements were performed with different setups inside and outside an aircraft cabin. The impact of realtime propagation conditions like passenger induced shadowing and interference from a Radio Altimeter (RA) is also studied. The measurements demonstrate that a UWB-based WAIC system has QoS that satisfies the WAIC requirements in Line-of-Sight (LOS) conditions and the presence of passenger shadowing. In the presence of interference, the performance can be improved using scheduling to meet the requirements.