Optical Wireless ICS for E2C Platforms

"Direct voice communications in military aircraft suffer from interfering ambient noise. Usually, an intercommunications system (ICS) gives relief by using interconnected headsets. The E2-C "Hawkeye" is equipped with a conventional copper cabled ICS.The cable has the disadvantages of "tethering" the crew members to the ICS jacks, of providing a limited data transmission rate, and is susceptible to radio frequency interference (RFI). We propose an optical ICS consisting of infrared wireless headset links to a fiberoptic backbone via an optical access point. The wireless link would free the crew members from the cable tether. In addition, the wide bandwidth available to thefiberoptic backbone may be exploited to provide a high data rate bus for the delivery of headup displays and data transmission between workstations. A fiberoptic local area network (LAN) could easily support the intercom function of the ICS whileproviding a capability for high speed data transmission. Installation of fiberoptic LANs for transmission of voice, video and sensor data are currently being for considered for several platforms such as E2-C, EA-6B, P-3 and JFS. A wireless ICS connectedto such a LAN is a logical extension to increasing aircraft performance capability. The emergence of portable information terminals in work and living environments is accelerating the introduction of wireless digital links and local area networks (LANs).The use of diff