Capacity Dimensioning for Aeronautical Communications in North Atlantic Corridor

• Main Authors: Pirovano, Alain, Garcia, Fabien, Radzik, José
• Other Authors: Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile - ENAC (FRANCE), Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace - ISAE-SUPAERO (FRANCE), Département d'Electronique, Optronique et Signal - DEOS (Toulouse, France)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Réseaux et télécommunications; Aeronautical satellite; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://oatao.univ-toulouse.fr/10676/; http://oatao.univ-toulouse.fr/10676/1/Radzik_10676.pdf; http://www.asi.it/en/events/conferences/ka_conference

In the context of the Internet everywhere paradigm, aircraft passengers expect to get connectivity during flights. Several solutions based either on cellular networks in continental area or on satellite links have been designed and even deployed for some of them. But to face the increasing number of users and expected services, a migration to future satellite system such as Inmarsat's Ka band Global Xpress system have been planned. The considered geographical area of the present study is the north Atlantic corridor. In this service zone, the specific structure of aeronautical traffic must be taken into account. NAT (North Atlantic Tracks) are oceanic routes between North America and Europe that are periodically defined considering weather and wind conditions. This explains why the exact locations of the tracks change daily according to weather and also traffic demands. On each continent, specific air traffic control is provided in order to manage entrance and movement along these tracks. The proposed study makes the assumption of a flexible global coverage provided by multi beam Ka band satellites that operate in geosynchronous orbit. Aircraft flying in the north Atlantic corridor use the system in order to offer in-flight connectivity for airline passengers. Doing so, passengers may access common Internet services, namely web browsing, electronic mail, or file transfer. More specific applications for pilots and companies are also taken in consideration enhanced with new services such as real time black box data streaming. In order to assess induced traffic load and instantaneous required capacities in each spot beam, a simulation model has been specifically developed by ENAC and ISAE with Opnet Modeler software.