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Wireless

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eagle11

Electrical
May 28, 2005
4
As we know Wireless communication has become almost mandatory in modern lifestyle. People always carry

wireless devices and like to be in touch. However, when they are in an air craft, the wireless connectivity is limited because radio frequency emission will interfere with air craft electronics. In addition, there won’t be any connection to the base station while they are in the air. One way to solve this is to use infrared communications within the air craft that will not emit radio frequency interference and provide any time connectivity.

Iam really interested in this area as I work in communication, i was wondering if i can get some guidance and any literature out there that might be of help. thanks
eagle
 
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There are projects already underway to enable use of cell phones in airplanes.

"HEY! HOWYA DOIN'? I'M CALLING FROM THE AIRPLANE!! YEAH, REALLY... CAN YOU HEAR ME? LET ME TALK EVEN LOUDER... CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? GOOD. YEAH... YEAH... YEAH..."

Marvelous...

 
There are a lot of gotchas to IR in this application:

1. IR is great for point to point communication (such as down a fiber optic). If you try to do it in free space you'll have to tell the phone user not to move (and that's not going to happen). If you try to cover lots of steradians of free space you'll get lots of loss.

2. If you try to crank up the laser power to make up for the loss you'll start to blind people. The FDA regulates lasers in the USA. Dig (and dig and dig and dig...) through their web-site for more info.

3. Instead of cranking up the power you can settle for low Signal to Noise ratio. Unfortunately that means you can only reliably send low data rates and you probably won't keep up with even a voice spectrum.

Lots to think about. Research these ideas and they'll lead you to the information you are looking for. Good luck.

I know... how about if you build a phone into the back of the seat and then charge $9.95/min?!? Oh wait, that's been done...

There have been other threads on this site concerning phone use in airplanes. Check those out too.
 
VE1BLL,
I second that opinion.
One baby crying bugs alot of people. They'll need first class, business class, cell phone class and coach sections.

If they enable use of cell phones on planes, cell phone jammers with 10 foot range should be legal.
Jammers are legal in Europe for a few locations I hear (movie theaters, maybe libraries?)
Allow text messaging only from airplanes.
kch
 
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