Modeling of the Electromagnetic Interference Map Generated by 3G Systems Inside Small Aircraft

Abstract—The substantial increase in customer demand for
office-like communication services during flights is pushing
aircraft manufactures to implement wireless solutions inside
aircraft. Nevertheless, aircraft safety is a paramount criterion for
operators, thus the potential risks posed by such communication
systems on aircraft equipment must be carefully assessed and
respective countermeasures taken. In this work, we adopt a
three-dimensional ray tracing method based on geometrical
optics and combine it with electromagnetic field computation to
model the interference generated by a 3G cellular system inside
the cabin of a typical business jet. The model initially develops a
propagation map of the electromagnetic (EM) radiation emitted
by the Node B station inside the aircraft to determine the power
incident on the receiving antennas of personal electronic devices
(PEDs). This is used to establish the transmission power
employed by each PED. Subsequently similar propagation maps
are generated for each mobile device. All the radio space
propagation maps are then vectorially combined to produce an
EM interference map at the fuselage.