Expand Data Transfer Rates within Legacy Aircraft (ERLA)

ABSTRACT: The intercommunication data rate (IDR) of legacy aircraft is a limiting factor for transferring data between positions on the platform. Future planned capabilities, like the Advanced Tactical Data Link (ATDL), will require a significant increase in IDR, which typically requires an expensive, time-consuming retrofit of the legacy platform to install networking cables or fibers. 5-D has conceived a system, Broadband On Aircraft-multi (BOAm), leveraging commercial Power Line Communications (PLC) technology that will provide Gigabit class IDR throughput over the existing wiring in legacy aircraft. Our concept will use multiple, militarized PLC communication channels to provide significant point-to-point, or multipoint communications. This technology will provide robust, secure, and reliable communications over the currently installed complement of wiring, cables, and power lines, throughout a platform, without interfering with the original wiring function or existing systems. Our concept is expandable to utilize all available communication channels, in concert, to increase IDR throughput to over 100 Mbps (threshold) or over 1 Gbps (objective). Our previous experience with PLC technology has proven that it can be militarized and employed on a legacy platform to provide significant bandwidth, and we will leverage this experience to successfully develop this new capability. BENEFIT: This effort will provide a product that easily adds a high-speed network, suitable for video transport and other high bandwidth applications, using only existing wiring in the target platform. Installing additional wiring in legacy aircraft is very costly and time consuming, so this technology could significantly reduce the effort required to implement desirable upgrades. This technology allows modern upgrades to be easily implemented in legacy aircraft, thus increasing their utility and value. Our system is expandable to use all accessible power, 1553 data bus, and discrete wiring to provide the Intercommunication Data Rate required. This technology has the potential to gain a real foothold in the aviation marketplace as a low-cost, low-impact, and reliable upgrade to existing aircraft. 5-D plans to make this offering an easy upgrade decision for a significant percentage of aircraft systems worldwide. In addition, the technology is applicable to many other types of platforms that we have not yet assessed as markets including: military and civil ground vehicles, marine platforms, and even industrial communications