Ray-tracing Techniques and The Simulation of Large-Scale In-Flight Wi-Fi Signal Propagation

Date

2018-05-05

Authors

DeHaan, Riley

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Worldwide access

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Abstract

As consumer expectations for data usage continue to rise, the acceptance of poor connectivity on airplanes will become increasingly untenable. Reliable, high speed inflight connectivity is in high demand in the airline industry. One challenge associated with designing in-flight wireless networks is understanding how electromagnetic waves propagate within the airplane cabin. In this thesis, a passenger airplane is modeled using FEKO electromagnetic simulation software, and ray-tracing simulations of Wi-Fi signal propagation throughout the plane are conducted. Large-scale fading parameters of the path loss factor and the standard deviation of shadowing are extracted from the simulation results and compared to those of field tests performed by other authors. The modeling results show good agreement with those of other authors and of theoretical predictions and demonstrate the potential of using ray-tracing techniques for modeling wireless propagation in aircraft cabins.

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Keywords

RF signal propagation, In-flight Wi-Fi, Simulation of RF signals with ray-tracing methods

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