Enabling multiantenna wireless communication in aircraft: Channel modeling, interference and noise analysis, and antenna and detector optimization

Wireless data transfer in aircraft has been identified as a 'transformative' technology for aviation. Numerous sensors for improving safety and reliability have been proposed for aircraft, and wireless communication is desired to increase the flexibility of their deployment and minimize weight and maintenance. The aircraft channel has moderate to rich multipath which can be exploited by a multiantenna system to increase data throughput.;The aircraft channel can be modeled using a site-specific 3D ray-tracing model and statistical models such as the Gaussian, Nakagami-m, and Weibull models. When combined with the front end parameters including directivity, polarization, matching, and efficiency, very accurate results are obtained. These models have been validated by performing measurements in three aircraft---Beech Baron BE 58P, Rockwell T-39 Sabreliner, and Diamond DA 42 Twin Star. Accurate prediction of practical system capacity requires consideration of external interference sources as well as adjacent users. Along with interference, noise must also be considered in realistic systems, because it reduces the capacity by increasing the ambiguity at the detector.;Traditional single user Multiple-Input Multiple Output poses many practical limits on the potential throughput of data in a downlink with many active users. The emergent field of multiuser MIMO is therefore gaining interest for its ability to efficiently transfer data to many independent users at once. Due to its intrinsically rich multipath and potential for many simultaneously active users, the aircraft cabin may be a well-suited application for MU-MIMO technology.;Antenna and detector design is an important aspect for successful implementation of wireless communication in aircraft. All MIMO systems are penalized by cross-coupling, and well-spaced single-polar array elements generally outperform dual-polar systems. Nevertheless, when spatial decorrelation is limited by the tight spacing imposed by typical handheld dimensions, dual-polar arrays can be a superior solution, as is demonstrated in this dissertation. The detector design and optimization complements the antenna design and shows that a joint optimization of both detector and antenna is not needed.;The interference and noise models developed in this dissertation along with the antenna optimization algorithm can be adapted to any wireless environment. The site-specific 3D ray-tracing model along with the front end parameters can be used for accurate prediction of multiantenna capacity in indoor, outdoor, vehicular, under-water, mines, and other environments.