Feasibility study of network planning for domestic flight in the Air of Ethiopia using LDACS-1
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Date
2016-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The digital communication system which has been used in aeronautical communication field is based on VDL-2 (VHF Data Link Mode 2) system. This system provides a transmission of text messages with a maximum bit rate of 31.5 kbps for a distance up to 375 KM. However, as the air traffic dramatically increased over the last ten years, the air space becomes more congested. Due to this, it becomes too difficult to assignee VHF spectrum channel for each aircraft. Thus, the VDL-2 system does not accommodate large aircraft traffic load and high bandwidth requiring services. In addition, the VDL-2 system has several limitations: it does not support high capacity services for the communication between the aircraft and the air traffic controller (ATC). And also it is not providing data services during long flights. These phenomena occur when the communication distance between the aircraft and the control is more than 375 KM.
These problems in aeronautical communication forced the aviation community to evaluate and prepare new air to ground communication system. In order to cope with the increasing demand of communication capacity in the aeronautical sector, the future communications infrastructure has been proposed in L-band frequency spectrum. Currently two candidates are considered for the L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS). The two competing digital data link technologies are LDACS type 1 and 2. Both L-band systems are the air-to-ground data link technology within the Future Communications Infrastructure (FCI).
From this perspective, this study investigated the LDACS-1 specification, Ethiopia airlines vision 2025 and perform network planning to serve the estimated data traffic load for the year 2025. Moreover, by deploying LDACS-1 system for domestic flight in Ethiopia a feasibility study has been made. Based on two different cases, the simulation is done for cell radius of 75 km with 30 base stations (BS) and cell radius 150 km with BS 12. In both scenarios the study assumed all aircraft generate the same data rate and travelling the same speed. The performance matrices considered in this work are: coverage by signal level, coverage prediction by transmitter, coverage prediction by overlapping zones and prediction by QoS. The performance indicator matrices show that, by implementing scenario I, the system can accommodate, up to 780 aircrafts. Whereas implementing scenario II the system can serve up to 312 aircrafts at a
time. Thus in terms of traffic load, the system capacity in scenario I is higher than that of scenario II.
Finally, simulation results show that the network planning based on LDACS-1 system can be implemented in Ethiopia. Consequently, the proposed network planning is able to fully serve the expected traffic load, with sound QoS and it provides full coverage of the continental Ethiopian airspace. Thus the deployment of LDACS-1 system can be possible in Ethiopia.
Key words: Aeronautical communications, Ethiopia airlines vision 2025, aviation community, VDL2, ATC, LDACS, LDACS-1, FCI, BS.
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Keywords
Aeronautical communications, Ethiopia airlines vision 2025, aviation community, VDL2, ATC, LDACS, LDACS-1, FCI, BS