Shared optical wireless cells for in-cabin aircraft links

Abstract: The design of a wireless communication system that can support multiple users at high data rates inside an aircraft is a key requirement of aircraft manufacturers. This paper examines the design of an on-board visible light communication (VLC) system for transmitting data on board Boeing 747-400 aircraft. The reading light unit of each seat is utilised as an optical transmitter. A red, yellow, green, and blue (RYGB) laser diode (LD) is used in each reading light unit for transmitting data. An angle diversity receiver (ADR), which is an optical receiver that is composed of four branches (in this work), is evaluated. The signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and data rate are determined. Three scenarios have been examined where, in the first scenario, one device is used, in the second scenario two devices are used and in the third scenario three devices are used by each passenger. The proposed system can offer high SINRs that support high data rates for each passenger by using simple on-off-keying (OOK).