Reliable Wireless Communications in Aircraft and Other Challenging Environments | Consortium for Embedded Systems | SIU

Abstract: Replacing wired interconnections with wireless connections in aircraft and other challenging environments has attracted a lot of attention nowadays with the fast development of wireless communication technologies. It reduces the complexity of electrical wiring and improves the operational efficiency. However, the deployment of wireless communications in these environments must meet very high standards for reliability.  In the proposed research, we focus on novel techniques for reliable wireless communications in challenging environments. Environment modeling, system design, and overall performance in terms of reliability, delay, and implementation complexity will be addressed, enabling both safety-critical and other applications such as maintenance and diagnosis. Our proposed techniques, including interference identification, interference avoidance, and redundancy and diversity schemes, is an innovative and integrated way to guarantee system reliability and provide safety and environmental benefits.

Problem: Electrical wiring in aircraft has become more and more complex nowadays. The use of wiring brings a number of issues in terms of weight, cost, safety, and maintainability. It is therefore desirable for aerospace industry to replace wired interconnections with wireless connections in aircraft. Similarly, the use of wireless communications in other environments such as hazard detection systems is also preferred. However, the deployment of wireless communications in these environments is a challenging task, which must meet very high standards for reliability.

Rationale / Approach: Existing wireless communication systems are not specifically designed for aircraft or other challenging environments, and may not satisfy the imposed requirements, especially high standards for reliability. The investigation of novel techniques for wireless communications in challenging environments with the desired properties is therefore critical. We propose to investigate from the aspects of environment modeling, system design, and performance analysis. Different aspects to achieve interference immunity, including interference identification, interference avoidance, and diversity techniques will be explored.

Novelty: Current systems for wireless communications aboard aircraft platforms are not reliable enough and sometimes even inadequate due to susceptibility to radio frequency (RF) interference from other devices. Our proposed research on wireless communications in challenging environments, consisting of interference identification, interference avoidance, and redundancy and diversity schemes, is an innovative and integrated way to guarantee system reliability. Besides, delay performance and implementation complexity are also emphasized in our system, enabling both safety-critical and other applications in aircraft and other challenging environments.

Potential Member Company Benefits: The industry member(s) can use the techniques in the proposed research for the development and integration of reliable wireless communication systems. Meanwhile, our performance analysis can help to validate the feasibility of wireless communication solutions and products for the industry member(s).

Deliverables for the proposed year: During the one-year period, 1 midterm report and 1 final report will be submitted. Simulating programs will be also provided to the industry member(s) related to this project.

Milestones for the proposed year: During the first and second quarters, different techniques for system design will be investigated and simulated. Starting from the third quarter, the performance of the system will be analyzed both mathematically and via simulation.