Research and Development on the Broadband Communication System for Airplane using Millimeter-Wavelength Band

Various broadband communication systems for airplane are under development in Japan. One is for rescue and support on disaster such as earthquakes, floods and also for ground surveillance, land measurement and so on. Another is for in-cabin ubiquitous wireless environment such as mobile phone, wireless LAN for passenger airplane. We have developed on-board equipment on broadband communication system in Ka band, and carried out the test of high definition video transmission, TV phone, IP phone, remote IP camera monitoring by using Zeppelin NT airship. We got the results that 100 elements digital beam forming antenna in Ka band gave 81 fixed cells on the ground and each beam had 50 Mbps transmission rate. And we are now developing broadband communication system in 48 GHz band between airplane and ground. Those are anticipated in realize substitution for CBB (Connection by Boeing) system in Japanese domestic airliner. We got 100 Mbps transmission rate in an echoic chamber test and have the plan to test using Jet plane next year.