Newsky - building a simulation environment for an integrated aeronautical network architecture

The expected evolution of aircraft traffic in the next decades and the foreseen lack of communication resources in the European airspace produce an increased need for efficient data communications. Up to now the general trend has been the implementation of new communication links and the optimization of existing resources. However, the main goal of NEWSKY is to integrate different communication technologies into a global IP based aeronautical inter-network The NEWSKY approach tries to achieve improved communication capabilities through a network centric service oriented architecture. In order to evaluate this future aeronautical inter-network it is imperative to define new simulation environments. The primary intent of our work is to develop a simulation environment which is capable of evaluating algorithms designed for a heterogeneous mobile network environment, laying the main focus on the evaluation of mobility and connectivity management concepts. The secondary objective of this work is to integrate the effects of self separation algorithms, medium term conflict detection and resolution, and collision avoidance systems into the concept of the simulation environment. This paper introduces a set of fundamental concepts to the simulation of integrated aeronautical communications architectures. NEWSKY is funded by the European Commission within the 6^th framework program.