Development of a L-Band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS) Framework

The L-Band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS) is a novel designed aeronautical data link to achieve the requirements of the proposed Future Communication Infrastructure (FCI). Advanced coding, modulation and multi-carrier transmission schemes are required to achieve the proposed secure and spectrum-efficient link while increasing the bit rate at the same time. Due to the properties of the communication channel and the presence of spectrum interference the implementation of the physical layer protocols and services becomes challenging. According to the official planned technical validation exercises an LDACS conformance testing shall be performed to validate the physical layer. Therefore, a simulation framework for the physical layer is required to estimate and confirm the actual system boundaries. A new LDACS framework is proposed that simulates and models the physical layer in accordance with the existing LDACS specifications. The framework is implemented in MATLAB using the Communications Toolbox and provides an end-to-end simulation of the communication link. To enhance the functionality and validity the framework introduces a hardware-in-the-loop interface to study the impact on the data link. The status and structure of the implementation will be disclosed as the framework is still under development.