Boffin Develops Mesh Wi-Fi For Planes
Posted: 17th Feb, 2005 By: MarkJ
UK radio scientist Roy Eddleston has successfully developed and tested a MESH based Wi-Fi connection for aircraft. The product is being designed for use by Australian mesh network provider Make Me Wireless:
[Make Me Wireless] approached Roy Eddleston, a UK-based radio technology specialist, to find out if ground-to-air mesh networking would be feasible. Eddleston told us: "I thought it should work in theory, but as far as I knew, no-one had ever tried. Mesh technology seemed ideal, because we could mesh and upload data from several stations at once."
The test flight was carried out in a microlight aircraft. This has a composite hull, vital to the attempt because the antennae had to be kept inside the plane. Eddleston explained: "If the antennae are externally mounted, you need CAA approval. But an aluminium plane is effectively a faraday cage. So the microlight was the ideal test craft."
The amount of data that needs to be collected shouldn't pose any problems, he says. "If you have a downward-facing, omni-directional antenna and you take a circular flight path, there is no problem caused by a doppler effect, and you just fly around that path until you have uploaded all the data."
Further test flights are planned, weather permitting. More @ The Register.
[Make Me Wireless] approached Roy Eddleston, a UK-based radio technology specialist, to find out if ground-to-air mesh networking would be feasible. Eddleston told us: "I thought it should work in theory, but as far as I knew, no-one had ever tried. Mesh technology seemed ideal, because we could mesh and upload data from several stations at once."
The test flight was carried out in a microlight aircraft. This has a composite hull, vital to the attempt because the antennae had to be kept inside the plane. Eddleston explained: "If the antennae are externally mounted, you need CAA approval. But an aluminium plane is effectively a faraday cage. So the microlight was the ideal test craft."
The amount of data that needs to be collected shouldn't pose any problems, he says. "If you have a downward-facing, omni-directional antenna and you take a circular flight path, there is no problem caused by a doppler effect, and you just fly around that path until you have uploaded all the data."
Further test flights are planned, weather permitting. More @ The Register.
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