The economical viability for satellite systems providing safety aeronautical communications

Issue title: The Role of Satellite Communications for the Provision of Air Traffic Management Services

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Gonzalez Perez, Hugo

Affiliations: CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), 18, Av. Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse Cedex 9, France. Tel.: +33 5 61 2814 37; Fax: +33 5 61 28 23 99. E-mail: Hugo.Gonzalez@cnes.fr

Abstract: Air traffic forecast projects an important increase of aeronautical communications at the 2020 timeframe. The actual communication infrastructure which supports ATM (Air Traffic Management) cannot deal with this evolution of data volume exchanged in dense areas. The SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) European project has started to prepare the Future Communication Infrastructure (FCI), with aviation stakeholders. To feed the investigations on the Future Communication Infrastructure, a joint study between ESA (European Space Agency) and CNES has been performed to prove that satellite communications system can be a good candidate to participate in the FCI. Technical and economical viability have been studied during this activity.

Keywords: Air traffic management, satellite communications, aeronautical communications, ATSC, AOC

DOI: 10.3233/SC-2008-0349

Journal: Space Communications, vol. 21, no. 3-4, pp. 175-184, 2008