Design issues and initial performance of an adaptive air/ground/air HF communication system
Abstract
Airplanes flying in the Canadian Arctic are often without communication to an appropriate air traffic control center for substantial periods of time. Attempts to provide continuous communication coverage for such aircraft must take the special geography of the region into account. High frequency communications appears to be the only practical single medium that can potentially provide this service. The constraints and the issues involved in the design of an air-ground-air high frequency communication system for arctic operation are discussed. The system design incorporates both the Link-11 standard and an automatic link establishment (ALE) unit. It is demonstrated that Link-11 and ALE techniques are, in some cases, complementary and that for the specific case of high frequency skywave propagation, ALE techniques are necessary for efficient operation of a Link-11 system. The system has been implemented in an experimental configuration at four stations in the Canadian Arctic, which will be operated for a year at a period of sunspot maximum in order to evaluate system performance and to study high frequency transmission in polar regions.
- Publication:
-
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Volumes 1 and 2 4 p (SEE N93-30215 11-31)
- Pub Date:
- 1990
- Bibcode:
- 1990ecev.confU....N
- Keywords:
-
- Aircraft Communication;
- Arctic Regions;
- Radio Communication;
- Air Traffic Control;
- Canada;
- Communication Networks;
- Ground-Air-Ground Communication;
- High Frequencies;
- Performance Tests;
- Systems Engineering;
- Communications and Radar