An automatic modulation classificationtechnique foraeronautical communications

The L-band Digital Aeronautical Communication System Type-1 (L-DACS1) has been considered as the potential standard for future aeronautical communications. As an important technique for L-DACS1, Automatic Modulation Classification (AMC) can recognize and demodulate the dynamically allocated signal in the system. However, due to the interference of Distance Measure Equipment (DME), performance degradation is encountered by the existing approaches in L-DACS1. In this paper, channel estimation and equalization from L-DACS1 pilot symbols were carried out to reduce the influence of channel especially the noise, which lead to an improved classification method for L-DACS1. It is shown through simulations that the method proposed in this paper outperforms the existing algorithm which is based on the sixth-order cumulates in terms of classification accuracy and complexity for L-DACS1 in aeronautical fading channels.