Spectral requirements of wireless broadband networks for the airport surface

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is considering the use of the 5091-5150 megahertz (MHz) band for the future potential implementation of wireless broadband networks for the airport surface, denoted as airport network and location equipment (ANLE). These wireless broadband networks could be used to address the increasing demand for data transmissions in the airport environment. The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) implementation of the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard is used in this paper to evaluate the spectral requirements of an ANLE network at a large airport. A methodology is developed to estimate approximate upper bounds on spectral requirements needed to support a set of potential applications that may participate in such networks. This methodology takes into account the physical layer characteristics of the OFDMA implementation of the IEEE 802.16e standard by evaluating physical layer data rates for the various modulation and coding schemes described in the standard. The upper bounds on spectral requirements described in this paper will provide a basis for estimating the total amount of radio spectrum that may be needed by an operational ANLE system.