Spectrum Efficient Communication for Future Aeronautical Services

This project is motivated by the fact that by 2025, the air traffic in Europe is expected to be 2.4 times larger in volume than today (with important local variations). Diversity in types of airspace users (e.g., low-cost airlines, general and business av iation, and unmanned aerial vehicles) is expected to continue to grow. The capacity of communication systems currently utilised for Air Traffic Management (ATM) is expected to saturate around 2015. Our investigations will be based on projections of fut ure communication requirements and allocated frequency spectrum, and will include air-ground (a/g), air-air (a/a), as well as air-satellite (a/s) communication links. The project will start by a comprehensive study of the various channel characteristics on one hand, and of the forecasted future traffic characteristics and requirements on the other hand. This knowledge will be used to explore how to exploit the available frequency resources in an optimal way in order to meet the future aeronautical traff ic requirements. The project will encompass link level optimisation through multiple antenna techniques, adaptive coding and modulation etc., as well as network optimisation through ad hoc routing algorithms and resource management in a heterogeneous netw ork setting. A close interaction will be kept with the international communities and bodies working on future aeronautical communication (such as groups and projects within Eurocontrol and the ICAO ACP) in order to align the project with the rest of the international community.