Energy-Efficient Multi-Access Technologies for Very-High-Throughput Avionic Millimeter Wave, Wireless Sensor Communication Networks

In this paper, we investigate energy-efficient wireless over fiber access channel and link layer technologies using 60-GHz millimeter-wave (mm-wave) band for avionic very high throughput millimeter-wave sensor communication networks (VHT-MSCNs). An efficient architecture for wireless sensor network employing directional mm-wave wireless access technologies is proposed for systems that require very high throughput, such as high definition video signals, for sensing, processing, transmitting, and actuating functions. Comparisons among various multi-access techniques in terms of power and link layer operation efficiency are presented. A specific multi-access network design for VHT-MSCN is proposed and evaluated here, including energy consumption modeling and protocol frame configuration. A proof-of-concept testbed of the proposed very-high-throughput wireless over fiber sensor communication network using 60-GHz mm-wave radio-over-fiber (RoF) technology in downlink transmission and multi-access technique in uplink transmission has been designed and demonstrated.