Development of advanced software for channel characterization in aircraft cabins

This paper summarizes the work performed under the development of the advanced software, AircraftWireless, for modeling channel characteristics inside aircraft cabins. The methodology employed in the software is an efficient hybrid approach combining ray-tracing and the integral equation method. The integral equation method is employed for characterizing the transmitters/receivers and determining radiation patterns of receiving antennas in the presence of dielectric objects. The image based ray-tracing technique is used for modeling the interaction between transmitters and receivers within a given cabin. The developed hybrid algorithm has been validated by comparing the simulated results with those obtained by commercial software or measurement data. Good agreement is observed. The developed software allows user to predict various channel parameters such as narrow- and wide-band site-specific channel parameters, and large- and small-scale statistic channel parameters.