NON-CENTRALIZED NETWORKS FOR INTERFERENCE-FREE WIRELESS COMMUNICATION WITH HARD REAL-TIME REQUIREMENTS PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION

Abstract

Aircraft cabin communication is a key factor to provide high quality services to passengers. Current technologies which rely on cables, connectors and servers introduce several problems such as weight, mass and reliability. Although common wireless technologies such as Wifi and Bluetooth have been very popular, the risk of interference with air traffic control signal makes them infeasible in the aircraft cabin environment. Avoiding any possibility of interference, infra-red based communication is one possible solution. This project shows that the concept of an infrared based in-flight entertainment system without a central media server is feasible. In addition, it was demonstrated that for such a system, wireless communication among the nodes can be achieved by means of directed infrared communication links. The findings are supported by a thorough technology review and a series of measurements as well as simulations and implementation. The main advantage of the described system is the reduction of weight and volume in comparison to current systems. Moreover, the usage of interference-free wireless communication enables a new degree of flexibility for cabin design and maintenance.