Development of a LTE system-level simulator for aircraft cabins

Desenvolupament d'un simulador per a estudiar el rendiment de les xarxes LTE dintre d'una cabina d'avió. Consistirà en una unitat de processament, una API i una GUI. [ANGLÈS] Mobile broadband has changed the way we live and work. The way we communicate is becoming enriched with higher speeds and exciting new services both at home, on the road and on aircraft. Nowadays, a growing number of aircraft count with on-board Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) that enables the use of mobile phones during flight. This is a result of the recent evolution of In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity (IFEC) systems, which have experimented significant growth in the air transport industry. In order to be commercially attractive, such new communication services need high data rates, high power efficiency, low latency and a better quality of service. Within this context, the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) can make this happen. However, such systems require some Radio Frequency planning efforts to integrate them into the desired aircraft. In these preliminary stages, performance studies are commonly undertaken. The current document specifies the design and implementation of a tool that aims to be useful for such studies. This tool, a simulator of on-board LTE networks, is able to simulate the in-cabin LTE installations and to provide reliable results of LTE performance. The LTE simulator described in this Thesis is a RESTful web application made of three parts: 1. The processing unit (CORE), which carries out the simulations. 2. The Application Programming Interface (API), as an abstraction layer between the processing unit and the Graphical User Interface. 3. The Graphical User Interface (GUI), which eases the user interaction with the system. This document is structured as follows: chapter 1 summarizes the objectives, the project background and scope. Chapter 2 provides a theoretical background of 3GPP LTE. Chapter 3 describes the system at a high level through its requirements and gives an overview of the system design. Chapter 4 describes the various subsystems of the LTE system-level simulator. Chapter 5 illustrates the usefulness of the developed LTE simulator by describing the simulation of a sample in-cabin network installation. Finally, chapter 6 contains a conclusions summary of the simulator and suggestions for future work. [CASTELLÀ] La banda ancha móvil ha cambiado la forma en que trabajamos y vivimos. La forma en que nos comunicamos está cada vez má