HERE’S HOW IN-FLIGHT WI-FI WORKS

In-flight Wi-Fi is an amenity for those tech-savvy air travelers who want stay connected with friends, family, or office colleagues when while soaring high in sky. But do you know about the source of Wi-Fi service in airplanes? Well, it has been revealed that an aircraft gets connectivity in two ways on the basis of altitude and location:

1. Air-to-Ground (ATG) connectivity
2. Satellite-based (Ku Band and Ka Band) connectivity

ATG connectivity, which is considered to be faster, delivers data power to our devices the way we connect Internet through mobile. According to a Quora post by aviation enthusiast Manish John, ATG ground stations are situated along the major Flight paths that project a directional signal up into the air where airplanes are flying. Then, the aircraft communicates with the ground stations through an antenna installed on the underbelly of the fuselage. Equipment in the aircraft’s avionics bay converts the signal into standard Wi-Fi that is distributed into the passenger cabin via multiple Wireless Access Points (WAPs) that are located above the overhead cabinets of the aircraft inside the plane.

But if you are thinking that this ATG connectivity works perfectly, then objects, human body, movements and other things can disrupt the electromagnetic waves that ultimately affect the Wi-Fi speed. GoGo Inc. is the largest provider of In Flight Internet via ATG. They also have Satellites.

On the other hand, satellite-based Wi-Fi connectivity utilizes two bandwidths, which includes:

1. Ku band, where the ‘K’ means ‘Kurz’, the German word for short, and the ‘u’ stands for ‘under’ meaning under the original K-band satellite frequency.

2. Ka band, where ‘a’ stands for ‘above’ and allows for higher bandwidth.The functions of satellite-based Wi-Fi connectivity are similar to the way Satellite dish TV works, where you have to point the antenna towards the satellite and the tune in to watch your favorite TV show. But instead of antenna, aircraft is fitted with the radome on top of the aircraft.

Beneath this radome, there is a GPS tracker that locates the position of the aircraft as well as the satellite and calculates to which direction the antenna must be turned to point at the satellite. Some airlines like Jetblue offer Live TV and Internet which is works on two separate antennas. Airlines can choose between Ku/Ka-band antennas. Ka-Band antennas are faster than Ku-band antennas. Wireless service provider ViaSat powers Ka Band, with its new ViaSat-1 satellite, promises speeds of up to 70 Mbps to each aircraft.

Airlines like Emirates, Etihad, JetBlue, United, Norwegian, Turkish Airlines, Air China, Philippine Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, Nok Air, etc., offer this Wi-Fi facility to use internet onboard. So now whenever you use Wi-Fi on an aircraft, you know where it gets its food from. Stay tuned for more such interesting updates from the world of science and technology.