Aeronautical satellite data link concept, design, and flight test results

The performance of a full duplex aeronautical satellite data link (ASDL), using Inmarsat's spacecraft and earth station near Southbury, CT, and its potential applications are described. The ASDL operates at 200 bits/s, uses forward error correction (FEC) coding, and employs a terminal monitor, data recording equipment, and a personal computer, which serves as a user terminal as well as a real-time monitor of bit-error-rate (BER) performance. A detailed description of the operational ASDL system design topics and the developed ASDL design, as well as the test program (TP), are presented. The results of the ASDL TP indicate that the surface-mounted microstrip aircraft antennas (AAs), the RF transceiver, the modem, and the FEC algorithms are adequate to achieve acceptable BER performance level even at the edges of the Inmarsat coverage extremes and at unfavorable AA orientations.