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PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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Connecting Online Inflight
A Passenger’s
Perspective
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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What is the goal?
Provide passengers a simple and familiar means to connect their computing devices while onboard an aircraft
Provide a technical solution that not only satisfies the needs for today’s Internet services but will also have the capacity to grow with the Internet for the next 10 years.
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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Options for Connecting Laptops Inflight
Telephone modem Ethernet Serial Port Wireless USB
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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Telephone Modem
Connector type: RJ11 (majority of countries) Laptop cable: Standard telephone cable Hardware requirements: Virtually all laptops come
with built-in modems Maximum speed: 56Kbps Industry Acceptance: Very High Ease of use for passengers: Medium, however, the
worldwide use of this technology makes it acceptable
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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Ethernet Connector type: RJ45 Laptop cable: Standard Ethernet cable with possible
adapter for hardware solution Hardware requirements: Ethernet Card (typically PCMCIA
form factor) Maximum speed: 10 or 100 Mbps (shared) Industry Acceptance: Very High in business Ease of use for passengers: Difficult, requires substantial
knowledge to get configured and hardware is often part of office docking station
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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Serial Port
Connector type: D-sub 9 pin connector Laptop cable: Standard serial port cable Hardware requirements: Virtually all laptops today
come with built-in serial ports, however, some are being replaced with USB
Maximum speed: 115Kbps Industry Acceptance: Very High Ease of use for passengers: Medium, similar to
setup for telephone connection
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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Wireless
Connector type: None required Laptop cable: None required Hardware requirements: Passengers must buy special
receiver/transmitter (PCMCIA) Maximum speed: dependent on number of users Industry Acceptance: Low but growing Ease of use for passengers: Difficult, requires special
hardware and knowledge to install and configure
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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USB Connector type: USB Laptop cable: Standard USB cable Hardware requirements: Virtually all laptops come
with built-in USB ports (replacing many other I/O options)
Maximum speed: 12Mbps Industry Acceptance: High and growing fast, now
available in several hotels Ease of use for passengers: “Plug and Play”
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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Summary Telephone modem: Easy to use, widely deployed,
limited bandwidth Ethernet: Difficult to use, available today, high
bandwidth Serial Port: Easy to use, future in question, limited
bandwidth Wireless: No cables, difficult to use, not widely
accepted, high bandwidth? USB: Easy to use, comes standard with all new
laptops, high bandwidth
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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Cabin Distribution A Passenger’s Perspective
Passenger doesn’t care how just that his/her level of service is maintained.
Adequate bandwidth (> 1.5Mbps) must be guaranteed for each passenger to meet the demand of Internet services for several years out
PRIMEX Aerospace Company
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Gaining Passenger Acceptance
Must be deployed rapidly to meet customer expectations that the service is available wherever they need it
To do this the airlines need a system that is: Low weight Low power Small form factor Easy to install
