Modeling of the electromagnetic interference map generated by 3G systems inside small aircraft

Abstract

The substantial increase in customer demand for office-like communication services during flights is pushing aircraft manufactures to implement wireless solutions inside aircraft. Nevertheless, aircraft safety is a paramount criterion for operators, thus the potential risks posed by such communication systems on aircraft equipment must be carefully assessed and respective countermeasures taken. In this work, we adopt a three-dimensional ray tracing method based on geometrical optics and combine it with electromagnetic field computation to model the interference generated by a 3G cellular system inside the cabin of a typical business jet. The model initially develops a propagation map of the electromagnetic (EM) radiation emitted by the Node B station inside the aircraft to determine the power incident on the receiving antennas of personal electronic devices (PEDs). This is used to establish the transmission power employed by each PED. Subsequently similar propagation maps are generated for each mobile device. All the radio space propagation maps are then vectorially combined to produce an EM interference map at the fuselage.