Flexible voice/data platforms for commercial aircrafts

The availability of new semiconductor technologies has resulted in numerous new services in commercial aircrafts that were unheard of as recent as five years ago. These services support the needs of providing airline with individual voice/data communications in addition to the standard services of entertainment. The ability for an airline passenger to establish air-to-ground voice communications, and/or to connect via a data port to the enterprise network or other on-ground network and exchange information at virtually all times has become a compelling need for many people. This paper describes the usage of advanced integrated communications controllers in applications that support or enhance the existing on-going efforts that provide each airline passenger with individual voice and data communication services to connect to any desired location, on a global basis.