LDACS1 data link layer evolution for ATN/IPS

Air transportation is an important factor for the economic growth of the European Union, however, the current system is already approaching its capacity limits and needs to be reformed to meet the demands of further sustainable development. In 2003, at the eleventh ICAO Air Navigation Conference it has been agreed that the aeronautical air-ground communications infrastructure has to evolve to provide the capacity and quality of service required to support future air traffic management. The development of the L-band Digital Aeronautical Communication System LDACS was started. The system discussed in this paper, LDACS1, has been derived by merging aspects of B-AMC, TIA-902 (P34), and WiMAX IEEE 802.16e technologies. This paper discusses the evolution of the LDACS 1 system design after the first system specification was completed in 2008. This covers an improved medium access and logical link control design optimized for the ATN/IPS. This work was performed in the context of preparation activities for the further development of LDACS1 within the Single European Sky ATM Research SESAR framework.