AvBuyer Magazine – August 2019

What’s the Role of 5G in all of This?

Already we are witnessing the rapid deployment of

4G (fourth generation cellular-based internet) into

business aircraft cabins. While the resultant use of

improved onboard Wi-Fi is primarily for the benefit

of the cabin occupants, it does provide ability to

be utilized by the pilots, typically via tablets.

Subject to ongoing signal assurance, this will

evolve into Wi-Fi enabled avionics, forming a data

path between an aircraft and the future cloud.

Once the future 5G internet is derived via satellite,

offering global coverage, the use of Wi-Fi for

avionics will become more acceptable.

Signal reliability, redundancy and security are

three big concerns but, like everything else, the

marketplace – driven by the transport demands of

a financially enabled population – will ensure these

are addressed. Despite reservations, technologies

embedded in the internet will be approved by

airworthiness authorities, if approached

incrementally.

The primary differences between current 4G

data and future 5G are greater data rates and

lower latency, both significant requirements for

future avionics. Functioning at up to 100Gb per

second, 5G should outpace 4G, being 100 times

faster. 5G offers greater capacity, bandwidth and

reliability. Add this to satellite-derived internet and

the gains will be exponential.

In Summary

It may be fair to assume that high flying, load

bearing aircraft (including business jets) will

transition to more radical forms at a slower pace

than their smaller, lower flying, load bearing

cousins. These cousins are presently used for

enterprise activity, where load is not a high ratio of

total weight, and where the SWaP (size, weight and

power) consideration is not as critical.

Because of this likely lag, the focus of any

business aircraft operation in the near future may

be on the impact of wider aviation developments

on conducting flights. The airspace picture is

guaranteed to change irrespective of the pace of

evolution in business and transport aircraft.

In line with the R&D timeline necessary for

future energy, engine and propulsion (EEP)

integration on larger transport aircraft, there will be

the extensive ‘show compliance’ timeline of

airworthiness approval.

Apart from the approval of new forms of EEP,

there will be the gradual acceptance of the

electronic technologies outlined in Table A. These

Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) based

innovations are novel, miniature by comparison,

and powerful in their potential.

Next month, we’ll address the primary enabling

and primary existing advancing electronic

technologies highlighted in Tables A and B showing

how they are truly a straightforward evolution of

everything in use today. Stay tuned...! 

1 http://www.AVBUYER.com AVBUYERMAGAZINE
Vol 23 Issue 8 2019 
 119

A AVBUYER.com

Table C: Frequency Bands to be Used in

Future Aircraft Electronics

Band Frequency (GHz)

VHF 0.030 – 0.30

UHF 0.30 – 1

L 1 – 2 (4G)

S 2 – 4 (4G)

C 4 – 8

X 8 – 12

Ku 12 – 18

Ka 27 – 40

MMW 24 – 86 (5G)

Question Answer

Date and time of service? May 5, 2035, 9:30am

Pick-up location? Home address

Destination? City block location

Passengers? 1

Weight, including all carriage items? 190lbs

Required time at arrival (if applicable)? 10:30am

Return pick-up? No

Limitations, disabilities, special requests? Wheelchair

Environmental token? O!set debit/credit (complex use formula)

AI selects the ground and air transport (e.g. Uber), the route and timing (including weather and 4D tra!ic situation) and

availability of service. It then calculates overall environmental impact (each user and operator has a token debit or credit

status that can be applied to cost). The user is then quoted for approval and activation.

B

(4G)

S 2 – 4 (4G)

C 4 – 8

X 8 – 12

K

Table D: An Aviation Artificial Intelligence Example

(Customer logs in to a request site and completes the following...)

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