The Role of Satellite Systems in Future Aeronautical Communications [chapter]

Nicolas Van, Mathieu Gineste
2011 Future Aeronautical Communications  
Introduction Recent evolutions in the context of aeronautical communications have changed the landscape and the role of the different systems that allow aircrafts to maintain a link with the ground while in flight. The increase in capacity needed to support the growth of worldwide air traffic and the need for increased communication safety are driving a transition from voice-centric procedures aided by slow data link connections to data-centric control applications executed on higher capacity
more » ... mmunication systems. These future data links have to fulfil very stringent performance requirements. Indeed, the nature of the information they carry which is bound to become the first mean of air traffic control make their availability critical to the safety of air transportation in the future. Satellite communication systems have many differentiating arguments when compared to terrestrial solutions. Indeed, while the deployment costs of terrestrial systems can be sustainable in high-density areas, their use in low-density remote areas is much less interesting. In high-density areas, satellite could also be useful either as a primary mean of communication or as a secondary one in order to improve the overall communication system's availability. A satellite system, by nature, is able to cover large regions of the earth and can thus provide a cost effective solution to the coverage of both high and low density areas such as oceanic regions where reliable terrestrial coverage is nonexistent. In this paper, the interest of a satellite solution to be used as a data link for future aeronautical communications is studied. After presenting an overview of the existing satellite systems for aeronautical communication in operation today, the discussion focuses on the interest and strength of the forthcoming satellite link under definition in the frame of the ESA Iris Programme and its integration in the communication concept defined by the SANDRA EC FP7 project. Designing satellite systems for aeronautical communications This section presents the characteristics of satellite systems supporting aeronautical communications. A first part of the study presents the general architecture of such a system as well as its integration in the communication infrastructure as an access network to the aeronautical telecommunications network. In a second part, the constraints imposed by the regulatory domain on spectrum usage are presented. Finally, the most characteristic systems in place today are presented. www.intechopen.com Future Aeronautical Communications 188 General architecture of a satellite aeronautical communication system In this section, the general architecture of a satellite system for providing aeronautical communication services is presented. After presenting the role of the different segments, the integration of such systems in the aeronautical telecommunications network (ATN) specified in (International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO], 2007) is presented. Ground, space and user segments A typical satellite communication system is divided into three different segments. These are respectively the ground, space and user segments. The ground segment is responsible for interfacing the satellite communication system with the rest of the communication network infrastructure to which the satellite system constitutes an access network. Indeed, networking infrastructures are structured with a core network to which several access networks interconnect in order to allow end users to connect. In the ground segment of a satellite communication system, the information stream that arrives through the ground infrastructure is adapted in order to be sent out on the air interface of the satellite network gateway, which in aeronautical communication systems is known as a ground earth station (GES). The space segment is composed of the satellite itself, the role of the space segment is to either serve as a transparent reflector for the signals sent from the ground or to receive process and re-generate a signal towards the ground in which case the satellite is called regenerative. A regenerative satellite can be used in the case where the equipment on the ground and user segments doesn't use the same modulation and coding rate for example. Another example of regenerative satellites are those used in constellations such as Iridium for which the signal is decoded in the space segment in order for it to be routed towards the appropriate satellite towards its destination.
doi:10.5772/36150 fatcat:gumzi6p24zh2xo2ydt7oqvv5le