Incabin Millimeter Wave Propagation Simulation in a Wide-Bodied Aircraft Using Ray-Tracing

In this paper, the coverage of a wireless incabin transmission system is analyzed by means of ray-tracing simulations. The investigations have been performed with respect to a cellular radio system operating inside a wide-bodied aircraft. The system utilizes the 60 GHz frequency band with a signal bandwidth of 250 MHz per frequency channel. For the simulations a detailed model of the aircraft has been drawn up including passengers. Dielectric parameters of common materials have been taken from literature, unknown values of special materials like carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CRP) and glass fiber reinforced plastic (GRP) have been estimated from reflection and transmission measurements. The coverage is analyzed with respect to the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and signal-to-interference-ratio (SIR) regarding a occupied and a non-occupied passenger cabin.