The project KASI (Energy-efficient Cabin Systems and Interior) is a co-funded project by the Federal Minister of Economics and Technology (BMWi) for a duration of 3 years, from January 2014 to March 2017. One major work package within the project is CoNtESSA (Cabin Network for Wireless Sensors and Actuators). The main goal of CoNtESSA is the development of technologies for the implementation of a wireless data network for future aircraft. The project partners in this project are Airbus Defence &Space, Diehl Aerospace, f.u.n.k.e Avionics Gmbh, Technische Universität Ilmenau, I.M.S.T., Airbus Group Innovations, TriaGnoSys and DLR.
Wired-based networks are replaced with wireless networks in several fields in the last decades. The main advantages of introducing wireless networks are the reduction of weight, maintenance costs, enhancement of functionality and flexibility. However, the implementation of wireless technology in aircraft is challenging. One of the major challenges is to fulfill the safety and reliability requirements of the wireless data transmission for aircraft system. Hence, in this project is focused on major aspects and technologies to overcome this challenge such as : i) the substitution of sensor and actuator cabin network, ii) implementation of new techniques to improve the network performance, iii) development of demonstration platform to validate the network’s performance, safety and reliability, iv) and finally the development of a system-on chip (SoC) based transceiver platform for the selected transmission frequency band.
The Department Safety Critical Systems & Systems Engineering is partner in this project since 2015. Our main goal is the development of jammer design, analysis of frequency hopping algorithms and countermeasure against jammers and reliability analysis of the wireless sensory network with selected tools. On the backdrop of this project many jamming techniques are analyzed as jammers are a major source of interference inside the cabin. A study is conducted to evaluate the countermeasures against jamming attacks by using frequency spreading algorithms. Furthermore, a model-based tool is expanded for analyzing the system reliability of wireless data network architectures. The model based tool for wireless network application is assessed by selected use case studies.