Estimation of the Electromagnetic Fields Distribution due to Mobile Radio in a Typical Aircraft Cabin Using Large Scale FDTD Analysis

In this paper, electromagnetic field (EMF) distributions excited by mobile radio inside an aircraft cabin are analyzed and propagation characteristics are evaluated based upon the analysis results. Wireless communication devices usage has extended to a wide range of environments such as buses, trains, and aircrafts. Recently, some airlines have begun allowing in-flight voice calls. On the other hand, some paper reported that electromagnetic interference (EMI) to aircraft systems from active radio transmitters is possible [1,2]. The aim of this study is to develop accurate and reliable estimation method of EMF distributions in aircraft that can contribute to numerical EMI assessment technique. In an actual environment, comprehensive measurements cost too much and it is difficult to carry them out precisely. Therefore, we proposed to apply large-scale numerical simulations to examine the EMF excited by mobile radio [3]-[5]. The FDTD technique is a versatile and efficient tool for the solution of Maxwell’s equations in complex structures [6]-[8]. In addition, Large-scale parallel computing technique based upon several node partitions of a supercomputer is used because of its memory and speed capabilities [9]. It is able to give us a good perspective within a reasonable computation time. We have used Boeing 777-200 aircraft model and employed the FDTD technique and a supercomputer to estimate propagation characteristics inside aircraft cabin in this paper.