Viavi Solutions has said that it will provide its support for verifying the existence of any interference between 5G communications networks and radar altimeters used in the aviation industry. There has been a lot of noise in the aviation as well as telecom industry about the possible threat of C-band 5G services interfering with the sensitive aircraft equipment. Thus Viavi has said that it would pitch in to solve this issue with its extensive history in testing both avionics as well as wireless equipment for communication service providers, military branches, airlines, and equipment manufacturers worldwide.
Viavi Said Potential Interference Would Occur In Narrow Band of Radio Frequency
According to a statement from Viavi, any potential interference would only occur in a very narrow band of radio frequency. The interference would occur in the frequency that is not even a part of C-band 5G in India (3.7 GHz - 3.98 GHz).
Radio altimeter systems inside the aircraft utilise airwaves in the 4.2 GHz - 4.4 GHz bands. However, Viavi said that there is the potential for interference from the edges of these bands, which can be mitigated by testing and adjusting both the radio altimeter and 5G networks before live commercial deployment.
Viavi has made a testbed for the same. The testbed consists of VIAVI ALT-9000 for testing any format of radio altimeter system as it is capable of providing altitude simulations with true RF time delay and path loss models. The VIAVI ALT-9000 is capable of identifying any vulnerability that can be caused by 5G interference.
The testbed further includes VIAVI OneAdvisor 800. This product from the company is capable of delivering real-time spectrum analysis for the 5G C-band range of frequency with 3D and 2D spectrogram plots.
Lastly, the testbed includes the VIAVI Ranger, which offers broadband recording and playback of RF signal environments.
This testbed will allow Viavi to comprehensively test any interference, if any, caused to the radio altimeters inside the aircraft by the 5G C-band spectrum.
