Attenuation Measurements and Interference Issues for In-Cabin Wireless Networks

This paper presents an outdoor-to-aircraft measurement campaign conducted inside a long range Airbus A340-300 aircraft in order to evaluate the attenuation induced by the haul of the aircraft. The obtained results can be used to perform an interference study and assess whether the aircraft on-board network interferes to the terrestrial links. The minimum aircraft attenuation was found 15.5 dB. This value increases 5.5 dB, in average, under the wing of the aircraft. From the interference study, it is found that even from a distance of 286 km away, interference may be caused by the aircraft mobile terminal to the ground base station. If we want to prevent that the aircraft base station will interfere to the ground mobile terminal an additional shielding of 7.3 dB is required. To avoid the interference from the on-board mobile station to the ground base station an extra attenuation of about 16.3 dB is needed.