CNS architectures and systems research and development for the National Airspace System

The need for significant improvements in communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS) for civil aviation has become more urgent in recent years. The continued growth of aviation traffic, nationally and globally, cannot be supported simply by extending current air traffic management (ATM) methods. New ATM methods and systems capable of supporting future traffic loads are under development. They require exchange of significant amounts of digital data between airborne and ground based elements of the airspace system. But the key supporting CNS infrastructure required to enable the digital data exchange does not currently exist. Therefore, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is undertaking a significant new project to research, develop and test new technologies to provide the CNS infrastructure needed to support future ATM for the U.S. National Airspace System and the Global Airspace System. This paper describes the new CNS research project and how CNS research fits within NASA´s airspace system research program. Sub-projects being investigated for possible inclusion in the project are described and the plans for integration of the subprojects and the execution of the project are presented.