57
01
Key Factors for Success Successfully deploying commercial wireless-in-the-sky service presents a number of difficult challenges regarding the special physical demands of an airborne operating environment. Many of these issues are similar to those encountered in harsh airborne military deployments and some are unique to the commercial airline industry.
Optimising Size, Weight, Power and Cost Designing the specified functionality and performance to meet stringent size, weight and cost requirements is an always-present challenge with any airborne application. With the steadily rising cost of fuel, which is the single largest expense category for most airlines, the weight factor in fuel- efficiency has become an area of constant concern and scrutiny. At the same time that airlines are already eliminating any unnecessary weight from their aircraft, it is critical that wireless-in-the-sky deployments deliver the highest possible weight-to-revenue return. Through a close collaboration, Motorola and Kontron have designed the modular CWAP unit to weigh about four pounds, while minimising both size and cost. The bottom line for airlines is a fully ruggedized wireless access point that is only two-thirds of the weight, size and cost of the available alternatives.
Fitting into Tight Space Constraints The CWAP modules are designed for easy mounting in a wide range of accessible but out-of-the-way bulkhead locations, enabling the airline engineers to place them virtually anywhere within existing aircraft to provide optimal coverage. Likewise, the server units, such as Kontron´s ACE Flight™
General
Purpose Airborne servers, are designed so that they can be efficiently mounted within existing space configurations, while also providing easy access for maintenance, data updates, storage uploads/change-outs, etc.
Compliance with Standards & Interoperability (DO-160E, ARINC) All of the Kontron servers and CWAP units are compliant with appropriate standards for airborne deployment and operation. Key among these is RTCA/DO-160E, which defines a full spectrum of environmental specifications and test criteria to assure the safety and reliability of all airborne electronics. In addition, the units are designed to meet ARINC mounting, interoperability and connectivity standards to provide for easy integration with other systems and efficient maintainability. Rigorous empirical testing of the system within real-world operating environments has shown excellent performance results and scalability. For example, a controlled test using a single CWAP access point mounted within a wide-body commercial aircraft showed the capability to simultaneously stream real-time video content at 1Mbs to over 120 wireless client systems. This constitutes a more than 5x performance advantage over competing systems that show measureable degradation of performance at 20+ wireless clients.
The Bottom Line Now that the long-held predictions about wireless-in-the-sky services and the real-world market opportunities have finally come together, many airlines are moving very quickly to implement their own services. Lured by the lucrative ancillary revenue opportunities and driven by competitive pressures, airlines are looking for proven solutions that can support both rapid-rollout and scalable, sustainable growth over the long run.
Many of them have already found that a standards- based blending of robust 802.11n wireless and ruggedized modular CWAP/server networks, provide the solid architectural foundation needed to finally get wireless-in-the- sky off the ground.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194