Ranging with LDACS1: First Results

Abstract

In order to cope with the increasing demand for communication capacity in the aeronautical sector, the Future Communications Infrastructure is currently being developed. For air ground communications currently two candidates are considered as the new L-band digital aeronautical communication system. In this paper the idea of using one of the systems currently proposed for air ground communication, namely LDACS1, as navigation aid is presented. Compared to satellite based navigation systems, LDACS1 exhibits a significantly lower vulnerability to intentional or unintentional interference. This is due to its larger received power. The paper presents first results of the research conducted on that topic. This includes an assessment of the theoretic and currently achievable ranging precision; new results on the ranging accuracy are given.