Boeing Drops Wireless System For 787

K7DAN writes "It appears that state-of-the-art connectivity in Boeing's newest aircraft means a wired, not a wireless network. The Seattle Times reports that Boeing has abandoned plans to bring entertainment and information to passengers through a wireless system in its 787 Dreamliner due to possible production delays and potential conflicts with other radio services around the world. A side benefit is an actual reduction in weight using the wired system. Amazingly, the LAN cables needed to connect every seat in the aircraft weigh 150 lbs less than all the wireless antennae, access points, and thickened ceiling panels required to accommodate a wireless network (the design called for an access point above each row)." The article concludes: "The net impact, [a Boeing spokesman] said, is less technical risk, some weight saved, the system's flexibility and quality preserved plus 'a bit of schedule relief.'"

RTFA

[vondo]

The article is not about internet access at all but distribution of inflight movies and entertainment. And there is not an access point at every row, but an antenna at every row (in the old scheme). If you read it, that's a receiving antenna that would then distribute the content to the seats in that row, not a transmitting antenna (access point).

Also, this plane is already several thousand pounds over the design weight, so I imagine that has something to do with this decision.

Re:plane-LAN to WAN?

[Moby Cock]

Usually a rotating antenna fed from a 3-axis gyro. Modern aircraft use ring-laser gyros which are very accurate. The antenna always points to the same spot in the sky (assuming it can, on long flights the curvature of the earth can become a factor).

Re:plane-LAN to WAN?

[Anonymous Coward]

Flarion Technologies (now QFT division of Qualcomm) did some ground-air testing with Flash-OFDM a couple of years ago that worked quite well, so it doesn't have to be a satellite based system. This solves the latency problem. Cell spacing can be quite wide geograpically since you are looking UP instead of through buildings and trees. Also, the number of active receivers per cell is reduced, so the need for cell site density is lower over all. The German railway is currently installing a similar system to provide WAN backhaul to support in-train WIFI access for their intercity transit system.

See this link:

http://www.t-systems.de/en/Home/LargeEnterprise/In dustries/id=156434.html [t-systems.de]

Re:150 lbs

[Type-E]

I have lived in Canada and Hong Kong where both places use metric. While, temperature is in Cecilius, distance is in KM, on the other hand, when weight is referenced, people would still use pounds. I do not mean that they don't use kg, but lbs is more common than kg.

Re:access point above every row?

[MaestroRC]

I didn't say that it's a 108Mbps standard, I said that with twin broadcasting radios (business class AP's), there would be a theoretical 108Mbps available from that *AP*. Yes, for a single radio on board an AP, there would only be 54Mbps available.

Re:plane-LAN to WAN?

[tenchiken]

Some technical background. The wireless technology they were trying to use was actually draft 802.11n. Obviously part of the problem is the delays that the 802.11n stuff has had getting to spec. The secondary part of that is without a ISO spec, at least one large government(who might have a interest in pushing a native spec) refused to permit 802.11n in the airspace, claiming it might interfere with military applications.

Boeing pitched this solution pretty hard when they started selling the 787. The 787 overall appears to be a runaway success. It's the fastest selling commercial airliner in history. Airbus has been playing catch up, and currently is in their 7th revision of the plane they are trying to sell to compete with it directly.

So far the wireless is the only feature spec'd for the 787 that Boeing hasn't been able to make work. Given the huge technical risks (incredibly high usage of composites, larger electrical system, increased FBW, huge global supply chain, bleedless engines (normal planes use a portion of the planes airflow to power de-icing and air conditioning) etc. It really will be the state of the art when the plane flies.

Wireless would have been nice though.