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Channel Modeling and Performance Analysis of Airplane-Satellite Terahertz Band Communications.
- Source :
-
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology . Mar2021, Vol. 70 Issue 3, p2047-2061. 15p. - Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Wireless connectivity in airplanes is becoming more important, demanded, and common. One of the largest bottlenecks with the in-flight Internet is that the airplane is far away from both the satellites and the ground base stations during most of the flight time. Maintaining a reliable and high-rate wireless connection with the airplane over such a long-range link thus becomes a challenge. Microwave frequencies allow for long link distances but lack the data rate to serve up to several hundreds of potential onboard customers. Higher bands in the millimeter-wave spectrum (30 GHz–300 GHz) have, therefore, been utilized to overcome the bandwidth limitations. Still, the per-user throughput with state-of-the-art millimeter-wave systems is an order of magnitude lower than the one available with terrestrial wireless networks. In this paper, we take a step further and study the channel characteristics for the terahertz band (THz, 0.3 THz–10 THz) in order to map the feasibility of this band for aviation. We first propose a detailed channel model for aerial THz communications taking into account both the non-flat Earth geometry and the main features of the frequency-selective THz channel. We then apply this model to estimate the characteristics of aerial THz links in different conditions. We finally determine the altitudes where the use of airplane-to-satellite THz connection becomes preferable over the airplane-to-ground THz link. Our results reveal that the capacity of the airborne THz link may reach speeds ranging from 50–150 Gbps, thus enabling cellular-equivalent data rates to the passengers and staff during the entire flight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00189545
- Volume :
- 70
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 149773777
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1109/TVT.2021.3058581