First principles wireless network simulation for aircraft

Not only are aerospace applications particularly attractive for wireless networks they are also particularly challenging. It is necessary to have a means of predicting network performance in the early stages of an aircraft program, before prototypes exist. In this paper we present work on a first-principles wireless network simulator for aerospace applications. The starting point of this approach is numerical electromagnetic simulation of the aircraft structure to generate channel models. These channel models can then provide signal to noise ratios as an input to a classic network simulator. This article presents the principal elements of such a simulation chain. Electromagnetic simulators are employed on realistic aeronautical structures. Comparisons are performed between laboratory mock-ups and network simulators. Parameter sweeps are generated to predict network behaviour for realistic scenarios.