Transmission delay in wireless sensing, command and control applications for aircraft

Wireless sensing, command, control and prognostics health monitoring (PHM) solutions provide the promise of ease of system maintenance and upgrade, reduced life-cycle cost and could significantly improve system safety, security and overall comfort On the contrary, utilizing wireless connectivity introduces a number of challenges such as resilience against anti jamming and interference avoidance. In this paper, we particularly discuss the problem of varying time delays for a wireless link. An exemplary application is elaborated as case study for wireless transmission of PHM for a more-electric aircraft (MEA) where transmission delay has to be extremely small. The discussion is continued with some delay measurements to highlight the current limitation of some of the existing wireless solutions. It is concluded that existing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) wireless solutions are not suitable for direct use in this type of applications, and specialized solutions need to be developed.