Sci-fi movie-like air traffic is way nearer than you imagined

AAM (Advanced Air Mobility) is recognised globally as a solution to overburdened transportation systems. It is an emerging field of aerostatic and autonomous technology using eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft and vertiports (vertical airports) to transport passengers or cargo at lower altitudes in urban and rural areas. These next-gen eVTOL aircraft will be smaller and lighter than existing flight vehicles and hence hard to remote control through radar and satellite networks. As a result, many will be self-flying and autonomous UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).

According to NASA, AAM will support over 100 million flights annually for metro services and package delivery by 2030 and will become a part of our daily life. While reading this article, an AAM program is being carried out in full swing in Paris to unveil this futuristic transportation in Paris Olympic 2024.

Challenges

The AAM faces challenges similar to those of autonomous vehicles and ITS (Intelligent Transportation System). However, aerial traffic management will be more challenging than terrestrial as it involves more dimensional data. Hence the data size becomes much larger. AAM's success requires not only in-aircraft AI and network connectivity but also the intertwined web of interconnected edge devices, intelligent infrastructures, and smart traffic management systems. These elements of success rely on the growing ubiquity of high-capacity and high-performance memory and storage solutions to maximise the efficiency of edge computing and AI. At the same time, compactness is also necessary for application into space-constrained eVTOL aircraft, edge devices, and vertiports. Furthermore, cost-effectiveness and power efficiency will be pivotal for realising the next-gen of mobility in the air.

Cervoz solutions

Although much effort now is focusing on regulation and in-aircraft technology, the infrastructure density may play the main role in driving scale in the long run. Cervoz offers memory and storage solutions for HPC (High-Performance Computing), AI, and Edge computing, enabling intelligent infrastructures for AAM and unmanned traffic management (UTM).

Storage and memory solutions for next-gen applications

Cervoz's embedded module T405 and T435 families comply with the NVMe interface and PCIe Gen3x4 protocol, allowing five-time higher sequential read/write speeds than SATA lll, making them candidates for Edge computing and AI applications. If voltage instability is your primary concern, refer to the T436 Gen3x4 SSD series, released at the end of 2022. The product series features the company’s PLP (Power Loss Protection) technology, Powerguard, to guarantee uninterruptible performance by integrating tantalum capacitors to provide extra power during sudden power outages or voltage drops. Furthermore, if you are looking for more advanced performance, Cervoz Gen4x4 M.2 SSD, available soon, offers twice the bandwidth and data transfer rate with significantly lower power consumption than Gen3x4.

For memory solutions, Cervoz recommends its DDR5 DRAM modules, featuring high capacity, transmission speed, and reliable quality, which make it ideal for working with massive datasets in AAM applications.

Low-latency Wi-Fi 6 expansion solutions

Low latency and wireless connection are critical to AAM, as the minute-to-second difference in information delivery may affect personal safety. Cervoz’s new Wi-Fi 6 Expansion Solution is ideal for AAM applications. The Wi-Fi 6 Expansion Solutions can provide 1.25x transfer speed and 4x network capacity than Wi-Fi 5 to reduce signal latency in network-intensive urban areas while reducing nearly 50% of power consumption.