A system analysis of a GNSS augmentation data link

The advent of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is having a profound impact on surveying, mapping, and navigation. Nowhere is this more evident than in civil aviation. In addition to the capability for cost effective precise positioning and navigation there is now the possibility to conceive systems based on this technology that for the first time can provide automatic dependent surveillance (ADS), cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI), and collision avoidance (CA) functions. To accomplish these functions a complementary data link is needed. Preferably this data link can enable the needed functionality without the need for the creation of an extensive ground infrastructure on behalf of the government and yet provide aircraft operators with a system with which they voluntarily desire to equip without the need for mandatory and artificially expensive equipage. This paper addresses a concept to accomplish these desired aviation functions which will be referred to here as the GNSS augmentation data link (GADL)