Interference Calculations for Aeronautical Communications Using Cells in Greek Airspace

The aim of this work is to study the capacity of the three dimensional cellular Air-to-Ground system. Calculations have been done through simulations of the Outside Cell Interference Factor (OCIF), for reverse and forward link, by using seven rings of interfering cells around the desired cell, for various values of the maximum height of the cell and its radius. A Case Study for the major Greek airports has been made in which the number of the users per cell is being calculated for voice service of 12.2 kbps

WCDMA for Air to Ground and Ground to Air communications – Case Study for Greek airspace

In this paper the capacity of the Air-to-Ground and Ground to Air system is studied. The Outside Cell Interference Factor is estimated through simulations for uplink and downlink. The calculation algorithm is explained as well as the scanning mode of interfering cells around the desired cell. Results for the number of active users for various values of the maximum height of the cell and its radius are presented. A Case Study for the Athens, Thessaloniki and Iraklio airports has been made in which the number of the users per cell is being calculated for voice service of 12.2 kbps and video calls of 64 and 128 kbps

NASA Unmanned Aircraft (UA) Control and Non-Payload Communication (CNPC) System Waveform Trade Studies

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) represent a new capability that will provide a variety of services in the government (public) and commercial (civil) aviation sectors. The growth of this potential industry has not yet been realized due to the lack of a common understanding of what is required to safely operate UAS in the National Airspace System (NAS). To address this deficiency, NASA has established a project called UAS Integration in the NAS (UAS in the NAS), under the Integrated Systems Research Program (ISRP) of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD). This project provides an opportunity to transition concepts, technology, algorithms, and knowledge to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other stakeholders to help them define the requirements, regulations, and issues for routine UAS access to the NAS. The safe, routine, and efficient integration of UAS into the NAS requires new radio frequency (RF) spectrum allocations and a new data communications system which is both secure and scalable with increasing UAS traffic without adversely impacting the Air Traffic Control (ATC) communication system. These data communications, referred to as Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC), whose purpose is to exchange information between the unmanned aircraft and the ground control station to ensure safe, reliable, and effective unmanned aircraft flight operation. A Communications Subproject within the UAS in the NAS Project has been established to address issues related to CNPC development, certification and fielding. The focus of the Communications Subproject is on validating and allocating new RF spectrum and data link communications to enable civil UAS integration into the NAS. The goal is to validate secure, robust data links within the allocated frequency spectrum for UAS. A vision, architectural concepts, and seed requirements for the future commercial UAS CNPC system have been developed by RTCA Special Committee 203 (SC-203) in the process of determining formal recommendations to the FAA in its role provided for under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. NASA intends to conduct its research and development in keeping with this vision and associated architectural concepts. The prototype communication systems developed and tested by NASA will be used to validate and update the initial SC-203 requirements in order to provide a foundation for SC-203's Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards (MASPS)

WCDMA for aeronautical communications

This thesis was submitted for the award of Master of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.In this thesis, a study of the capacity of a suggested three - dimensional Air-to-Ground cellular system is being made. The Outside Cell Interference Factor (OCIF) is being calculated through simulations for reverse and forward link using seven loops, from the interfering cells around the desired cell for different values of the maximum height of the cell and its radius. Capacity per cell as well as delay and throughput for packet data transmission was calculated for the first time through closed form equations, with the use of the load factor, the activity factor and sectoring gain using the Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) algorithm for the correction of errors. Moreover, in this thesis, the algorithm which has been created is being analyzed and used for the simulations. Moreover, for the first time, a case study has been made involving the study of capacity of the Air – to - Ground system for the airports of Greece, in three basic scenarios in which the number of the users, the delay and the throughput per cell is being calculated. In the first scenario, we are restricting to the three major airports of the country, while in the second it expands to six airports covering from the radio-coverage side almost all Greece. In the first two scenarios the same cell radius of 175 km is being used, while in the third the radius is reduced to 100 km and the airports are increased to nineteen. In all three scenarios we assume that all the users use the same service. The voice services are also studied of 12.2 kbps and data with transmission rate 64, 128 and 384 kbps. From scenarios 1 and 2 (cell radius 175 km), it was found that we can service at the same time up to 179 voice subscribers per cell at bit rate 12.2 kbps which reduces to 33 users for video call of 64 kbps and in 18 for video call of 128 kbps. In scenario 3 (cell radius 100km),it was found that we can serve at the same time until 126 voice subscribers per cell at bit rate 12.2 kbps which reduces to 23 users for video call of the 64 kbps and in 13 for video call of 128 kbps. In scenario 3 although the capacity per cell is lower than in scenarios 1 and 2, it provides greater total capacity (for all Greece) in relation to these scenarios

MSAT-X: A technical introduction and status report

A technical introduction and status report for the Mobile Satellite Experiment (MSAT-X) program is presented. The concepts of a Mobile Satellite System (MSS) and its unique challenges are introduced. MSAT-X's role and objectives are delineated with focus on its achievements. An outline of MSS design philosophy is followed by a presentation and analysis of the MSAT-X results, which are cast in a broader context of an MSS. The current phase of MSAT-X has focused notably on the ground segment of MSS. The accomplishments in the four critical technology areas of vehicle antennas, modem and mobile terminal design, speech coding, and networking are presented. A concise evolutionary trace is incorporated in each area to elucidate the rationale leading to the current design choices. The findings in the area of propagation channel modeling are also summarized and their impact on system design discussed. To facilitate the assessment of the MSAT-X results, technology and subsystem recommendations are also included and integrated with a quantitative first-generation MSS design

Modeling the Use of an Airborne Platform for Cellular Communications Following Disruptions

In the wake of a disaster, infrastructure can be severely damaged, hampering telecommunications. An Airborne Communications Network (ACN) allows for rapid and accurate information exchange that is essential for the disaster response period. Access to information for survivors is the start of returning to self-sufficiency, regaining dignity, and maintaining hope. Real-world testing has proven that such a system can be built, leading to possible future expansion of features and functionality of an emergency communications system. Currently, there are no airborne civilian communications systems designed to meet the demands of the public following a natural disaster. A system allowing even a limited amount of communications post-disaster is a great improvement on the current situation, where telecommunications are frequently not available. It is technically feasible to use an airborne, wireless, cellular system quickly deployable to disaster areas and configured to restore some of the functions of damaged terrestrial telecommunications networks. The system requirements were presented, leading to the next stage of the planned research, where a range of possible solutions were examined. The best solution was selected based on the earlier, predefined criteria. The system was modeled, and a test ii system built. The system was tested and redesigned when necessary, to meet the requirements. The research has shown how the combination of technology, especially the recent miniaturizations and move to open source software for cellular network components can allow sophisticated cellular networks to be implemented. The ACN system proposed could enable connectivity and reduce the communications problems that were experienced following Hurricane Sandy and Katrina. Experience with both natural and man-made disasters highlights the fact that communications are useful only to the extent that they are accessible and useable by the population

Independent component analysis applications in CDMA systems

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Izmir, 2004Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 56)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxi, 96 leavesBlind source separation (BSS) methods, independent component analysis (ICA) and independent factor analysis (IFA) are used for detecting the signal coming to a mobile user which is subject to multiple access interference in a CDMA downlink communication. When CDMA models are studied for different channel characteristics, it is seen that they are similar with BSS/ICA models. It is also showed that if ICA is applied to these CDMA models, desired user.s signal can be estimated successfully without channel information and other users. code sequences. ICA detector is compared with matched filter detector and other conventional detectors using simulation results and it is seen that ICA has some advantages over the other methods.The other BSS method, IFA is applied to basic CDMA downlink model. Since IFA has some convergence and speed problems when the number of sources is large, firstly basic CDMA model with ideal channel assumption is used in IFA application.With simulation of ideal CDMA channel, IFA is compared with ICA and matched filter.Furthermore, Pearson System-based ICA (PS-ICA) method is used forestimating non-Gaussian multipath fading channel coefficients. Considering some fading channel measurements showing that the fading channel coefficients may have an impulsive nature, these coefficients are modeled with an -stable distribution whose shape parameter takes values close to 2 which makes the distributions slightly impulsive. Simulation results are obtained to compare PS-ICA with classical ICA.Also IFA is applied to the single path CDMA downlink model to estimate fading channel by using the advantage of IFA which is the capability to estimate sources with wide class of distributions

Proceedings of the Mobile Satellite Conference

A satellite-based mobile communications system provides voice and data communications to mobile users over a vast geographic area. The technical and service characteristics of mobile satellite systems (MSSs) are presented and form an in-depth view of the current MSS status at the system and subsystem levels. Major emphasis is placed on developments, current and future, in the following critical MSS technology areas: vehicle antennas, networking, modulation and coding, speech compression, channel characterization, space segment technology and MSS experiments. Also, the mobile satellite communications needs of government agencies are addressed, as is the MSS potential to fulfill them

Multipath propagation characterization for terrestrial mobile and fixed microwave communications

Multipath propagation is a key issue studied throughout this thesis, and it causes dispersions in delay, frequency and spatial domains. These are dominant phenomena in both terrestrial mobile and fixed wideband communications. In this thesis, multipath propagation mechanisms including diffraction, refraction, reflection and scattering are studied when radio waves interact with dielectric and metallic objects, or an atmospheric duct. Measurements were also performed for empirical modelling and validation of the theoretical work carried out in this thesis. By using physical optics (PO) method, the attenuation by double knife edges with ground reflections is solved for the first time under a general formula of the attenuation by multiple knife edges with ground reflections derived in this thesis, and some important and interesting conclusions are obtained. The attenuations by curvilinear-topped obstacles and by multiple flat-topped obstacles are also presented in closed forms. The results are the simplest and easiest ones available now, and they can be applied for field strength predictions both in mobile and fixed microwave communications. Based on three-ray (direct, reflected and super-refracted) and two-ray (direct and super-refracted) multipath models for plane and spherical earth, respectively, frequency selective fading (FSF) and depolarization due to clear air are studied by simulations and experiments for terrestrial line-of-sight (LOS) microwave links and dual-polarized communication systems. Novel simulation methods have been introduced and applied based on the fact that the amplitudes and excess delays of the rays are functions of the (modified) refractive index gradients which are random variables with exponential and normal distributions inside and outside the duct in lower atmosphere, respectively. Some important empirical or semi-empirical models and parameters are presented at 5 GHz based on large amount of measured data in indoor and outdoor environments. The results include path loss models, excess delay and rms delay spread, spatial and frequency correlations, window (sector) length of averaging fast fading components, path number distribution, and tapped-delay-line (TDL) channel models. These empirical or semi-empirical parameters and models are the latest results achieved at 5 GHz, and they are of great importance in designing of future wireless local area networks (WLAN), especially the TDL models are developed for the first time in this frequency band. Using a general autocorrelation function derived in this thesis for three-dimensional (3-D) scattering environments, a novel theoretical modelling method is developed to study the propagation mechanisms of different types of Doppler spectra observed in measurements. The 3-D autocorrelation function is connected to the probability density functions (PDF) of the angles of arrival (AoAs) of the scattered waves and the antenna radiation patterns in the azimuth and elevation planes. This is a new work which tries to define and explain the physical reasons of 3-D Doppler spectra from propagation point of view. A new computer simulation method for wideband 3-D received signal level in an urban environment is developed under the general assumptions of the distributions for path number, amplitude, excess delay etc. This simulation method can provide detailed fading characteristics for wideband mobile communications in a specific urban environment.reviewe