Airline passengers have come to expect the delivery of data and in-flight digital entertainment content to them in their seats. The common means of delivery is through video display units (“VDUs”) embedded in a back of a seat in a row immediately ahead of the passenger. In one simple embodiment, in-flight movies are delivered to the VDUs from a central video transmitter. Data signals including audio or video programming are distributed to each of the seats by hard wires, such as coaxial cable, and are routed to the each of the VDUs.
For the sake of safety and convenience, cables supplying these signals are run in the overhead or under the floor, and supply signal to the seats via columns of wiring that emerge from the flooring for center row seating, and from the sidewalls for the lateral seating. Signals service a column of seats, with a daisy chain of wires going from seat row to seat row. The wires between these seat rows are carried in a raceway adjacent to the seat track, and are protected and covered by a seat track cover, usually a rubber type material. The coaxial cable arrives at its destination seat back, by passing the cable through the seat structure and allows the routing of the coaxial cable to the VDU in the seat back.
To allow the passenger to control the VDU, a passenger control unit (“PCU”) is typically embedded in the armrest of the passenger seat. To enable the PCU, wire connections are routed from the passenger seat to the seat tray along the wire race to the preceding row of seats, and up to the VDU in the seat back immediately in front of the passenger seat. Each additional passenger seat generally entails similar connections.
Passenger demand has caused a need for even greater network service offerings. Rather than a single movie, passengers may desire a choice of several movies. Additionally, passengers may wish to have access to the Internet from their seat station. This increased data content is carried over the wired Ethernet-type conductor to the passenger interface. Wiring within the seat track raceway is either sized in length to fit the pitch of the seats, or there is a service loop of cable that allows limited flexibility in the positioning of the seats.
In many commercial settings, wireless networks have replaced the standard “hard wired” Ethernet network. To that end, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the “IEEE”, has promulgated the standard 802.11 for wireless networking. This standard has been widely accepted. Manufacturers offer many 802.11-compliant products for wireless networking. Wireless networks offer the advantage of accommodating moderately-sized (256 users) per radio frequency channel. Therefore, where larger networks are required, more channels are used.
The recognized economies of wireless networks have made them an attractive vehicle for distribution of data in environments where individual wires are cumbersome. As demonstrated in the discussion above, an airplane cabin is such an environment. Therefore, there is an unmet need in the art for applying wireless network technology to providing the connection of numerous VDUs to a central server in an airline passenger cabin.