Optimization of the Antenna Placement on a Commercial Aircraft for Communication with Ground and Satellites

Abstract

Traditionally, a geographical area can be monitored via land based communication systems or spaceborne remote systems for disaster prevention. However both methods have their respective limitations in terms of resolution, accuracy and real time observation. A new suborbital constellation concept offers an independent unit device which will be attached to an aircraft and use commercial flights as means of monitoring forest fires or forecasting solar energy. The shape of the fuselage can be used to redirect the creeping wave generated from the antenna away from the aircraft’s surface, towards the satellites for communication purposes. This research aims to determine an optimum antenna placement on the electrically large body in order to satisfy efficient communication with ground and satellites from the same location on the aircraft.
The quarter wavelength monopole operating at 1.575 GHz in L1 band for the GPS communication and a patch antenna with dielectric constant of 2.2 for the substrate operating at 800 MHz for the GSM communication are selected. Various algorithms and approaches are investigated to perform comparison of accuracy for results and computational resources between different simulation techniques namely Multi-Level Fast Multipole Method (MLFMM), Physical Optics (PO) and Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD) using a modern computational electromagnetic numerical platform FEKO. The simulation results show that the optimum antenna location on a Boeing 737 is found to be at the bottom of the aircraft in the conical section of the tail 30.95 m away from the tip of the nose in the longitudinal direction. In addition to that, this work provides a unique perspective to system engineering for using aircraft as a land monitoring station.