Multiple airborne radio interference to cellular networks: Statistical modeling approach

This article presented extended simulations in order to characterize the interference between multiple airborne and terrestrial mobile terminals. The interference analysis is performed considering three cellular networks: (i) GSM-1800 MHz, (ii) UMTS-2100 MHz, and (iii) UMTS-1800 MHz. In the radio interference study, the impact of the onboard base station emissions on the terrestrial mobile terminals was examined and evaluated. The compound interference (in decibels) with the terrestrial terminal was found to follow the Gaussian distribution. The results showed that there is visibility of the onboard networks in terms of noise floor increase, especially for GSM-1800 MHz networks, and the output of the base station should be adjusted around 0 dBm, if we want to avoid using an extra RF shielding in the aircraft cabin. The results for UMTS-2100 or UMTS-1800 networks showed that there is no need for extra attenuation unless the aircraft base station transmits more than 10 dBm. Finally, a general statistical analysis of SIR on a ground mobile station, taking into account the airborne and terrestrial shadowing parameters, was also presented.