When it comes to mission readiness, especially in U.S. Air Force hangars, bunkers, and flight lines, maintaining electronic workflows through secure and reliable connectivity is essential. Whether focused on logistics, such as ordering parts; accessing technical documents and manuals; uploading and analyzing aircraft data; or collaborating on equipment maintenance issues, the Air Force must provide reliable connectivity.
In short, the Air Force needs to establish a Flight Line of the Future.
While commercial access points currently deployed generally perform well in an indoor office environment, they are poorly suited for outdoor or vast locations such as hangars, flight lines and warehouses consisting of metal, concrete and moving aircrafts that block signals. What’s more, commercial vendors for access points typically deploy them without first conducting the rigorous site surveys needed for optimal coverage in complex environments. Unreliable Wi-Fi in hangars and around flight lines prevents the Air Force from seeing the full mission value from electronic workflow.
Imagine an operator who receives midday orders to replace an F-16 wiring harness. Today, that operator must walk to the work center desk, download instructions to a laptop, and then walk back to the aircraft. An operator assigned six tasks a day can easily spend two hours simply retrieving documents. This clearly leads to operational inefficiencies. Using a combination of wireless technologies, ID Technologies, in partnership with CommScope, can resolve these connectivity challenges.
Mission Planning for Hangars, Bunkers and Flight Lines
Legacy wireless access points are generally static and cannot transform to a dynamic environment where line of sight is often interrupted. This is especially true in hangars and on a flight line. There are advanced wireless access points available today that can support an ever changing environment using adaptive antenna technology—a capability that dynamically configures and re-configures its “beam” to achieve omnidirectional coverage with directional performance. RUCKUS® wireless access points use the patented BeamFlex+® adaptive antennas. By continuously steering transmissions to high quality signal paths, BeamFlex® maximizes and sustains Wi-Fi transmission speeds while minimizing transmission errors.
However, even the most advanced wireless solutions will not work reliably if not designed and architected for each base’s unique needs. Every mission our war fighters engage in is first realized through mission planning. The same is true in engineering a wireless network. A site survey is how wireless engineers plan their mission. Wireless engineers gather as much information as possible to include geo-location, functional workflow, and objectives in how the wireless will be used. From the data gathered, the engineers design and plan a deployment. The result should be a wireless network that will allow for real-time communication, be it for ordering parts or video analysis from inside an aircraft on the flight line.
The Solution at Work
CommScope and ID Technologies have teamed up to deploy this exact capability at select Air Force bases. The combined solution includes detailed site surveys, advanced RUCKUS access points, and implementation services. To test the capability, CommScope and ID Technologies deployed RUCKUS access points next to existing legacy wireless access points in various locations across several Air Force bases. In these tests, while the legacy access points often had varied signal, RUCKUS access points in the same location consistently provided stronger Wi-Fi signals resulting in more consistent client connections and better throughput.
How is this possible? As aircraft and endpoints move, RUCKUS access points adapt as each access point has up to 21 high-gain, directional antennas. The BeamFlex technology then identifies the best path to the receiving device, constantly reconfiguring the antennas in the best of 4,200 potential patterns to increase signal strength. As energy is directed to the client, other interference from neighboring wireless devices in the environment is significantly reduced, providing a cleaner client connection. It is similar to cupping your ears. With ears cupped, you are not only focusing attention to the sound you want, but you are also blocking sound behind you. Just as being able to hear better, BeamFlex+ provides a consistently stronger wireless performance and stable connectivity.
The Results Are Clear
With this wireless communications deployment from ID Technologies and CommScope, Air Force operators can perform their mission critical tasks whenever and wherever they need to. Instead of returning to the hangar throughout the day to download documentation, they are able to remain working in the field to continue operations.
On a base with 1,800 operators, if each operator saves two hours a day, the Air Force gains 3,600 man-hours daily, the equivalent of 450 additional personnel. For 144 Air Force bases and runways, reliable Wi-Fi is a powerful force multiplier. For Air Force bases and runways, reliable wireless connectivity through a combination of Wi-Fi and Private LTE / CBRS is a powerful force multiplier.
Another benefit of reliable Wi-Fi is that operators who need coaching during a procedure can join a video session with a remote expert using Air Force collaboration applications.
For more information on this specific program, click here.