The airborne open system interconnection data link test facility

The author describes the activities of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Technical Center in the joint government-industry Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN) project. The ATN is defined as a network architecture that allows use of multiple communication subnetworks and provides a path for oceanic, international, and domestic data link services. A major goal of the design process is the separation of the user applications from the communications and interoperability among diverse data link subnetworks. This project is oriented toward the eventual provision of a world-wide packet switched architecture for the networking of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Open System Interconnection (OSI) conformant host computer and systems and router intermediate systems