The main objective of WP3 is to explore recent advances in spectrally efficient modem technologies, as listed in Section 2, for aeronautical applications. The outcome of this work package will be of great value to the industry partners of the project, as it can contribute to identifying or envisaging the capabilities of future spectral efficient aeronautical systems. The detailed research focus will necessarily be heavily influenced by the findings in WP2.
A priori, we know that the communication channels are characterized by high mobility and strong available line-of-sight (LoS) components (a/g and a/a links), and significant path loss due to long distances (a/s links). The VHF band will continue to be used, while bandwidth extensions for future aeronautical systems will most likely be allocated somewhere in the region of 1 – 5 GHz (L-band and/or MLS extension band) [Ker06]. Interference of various kinds, e.g. between different aircrafts, might have a significant effect and must be managed/mitigated efficiently. Finally, satellite-based communication links can in some cases be able to significantly enhance the overall network performance, in particular in regions where there is little or no terrestrial infrastructure, such as in the polar regions and in oceanic communications - both of which have particular relevance to Norway as a nation. These facts lead us to propose the following research tasks within this work package:
T3.1: Multiple antenna technology and space-time processing on multi-carrier channels, for spatial multiplexing, diversity combining purposes, beamforming, or some trade-off between these extremes. The task will encompass design, performance analysis, optimization, and investigation of achievable gains from multiple antenna arrays in strong LoS environments, as well as validation of results by simulation.
T3.2: Adaptive modulation, coding, and power control for optimal link adaptation and capacity exploitation of multi-carrier based channels with multiple antenna capabilities. This task will encompass design, performance analysis, and optimization under uncertainties in channel knowledge, as well as validation by simulation.
T3.3: Advanced channel estimation and prediction for multi-carrier channels with multiple antenna capabilities, providing channel state information to transmitter and receiver and being accurate enough to base the link adaptation enough. Again the task will encompass design, performance analysis, and validation by simulation.