NAMA boss charges ATSEPs on solutions to 5G challenges

BY CHUKWUEMEKE IWELUNMO

The managing director of the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) Engr Tayib Odunowo, has challenged engineers in the organisation to think outside the box and provide inspiring solutions to the perplexing Fifth Generation Network (5G) challenges

Just as he told them as well develop programmes that enable 5G to evolve into a safe, reliable, effective and efficient aviation system.

Speaking recently and the Annual General Meeting of the National Association of Air Traffic Engineers (NAAE) in Calabar, Engr Odunowo revealed that 5G will provide enhanced in-flight connectivity, high bandwidth and reliability for avionics and communication systems, as well as improve operations of drones, UTM systems, advanced air mobility systems.

He further explained that 5G will also improve internet services for passengers, airport, airlines and air navigation service providers and used for advanced passenger facial identification system at airports.

Odunowo opined that while adopting 5G in the aviation industry will transform the status quo, it is imperative to understand that 5G remained a brand-new technology; one whose impact on the avionics of an aircraft was still unclear.

“The FAA, the committee that regulates all civilian aviation in the United States, and the airline companies argue that 5G can be potentially fatal to aircraft safety
When airplanes land, they use Radar Altimeters to gauge the distance to the land, and these altimeters operate at a frequency of 4.2 to 4.4 GHz.”

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Odunowo noted that the problem the civilian 5G telecommunication operates between the 3.7 and 3.98 GHz bands with the potential of interfering with the Radar Altimeters, the consequences of which are catastrophic.

He explained that the technical feature of 5G wireless broadband which allows telecommunication operators to provide internet to airplane travellers is called beamforming. “It focuses the data signal on finding the most direct route for delivering the data, reducing the energy required to transfer data by simply slashing it everywhere, as was the case with the 4G networks”