Due to both the constant increase in air traffic and the migration of air–ground communications from analog voice to digital data, the current, emerging and future communication systems are facing a tremendous challenge: to provide efficient links with suitable capacity, availability and integrity.
The aviation industry and airlines are expecting researchers, engineers and technicians to define, design, deploy and maintain current and future aeronautical systems dedicated to air–ground data link communications, but even well-trained researchers, engineers and technicians in current ground networks and their protocol architectures may have a lack of background information on the specific properties and constraints of the aeronautical environment and its organization, when they have to address aeronautical communication networks.
The authors of this book therefore have several objectives: firstly, to provide the reader with a means to explore the field of aeronautical air–ground data link communications; secondly, to give a comprehensive overview of the current, emerging and future communication systems dedicated to data link in the context of aeronautical air–ground communications; and finally, to provide information on research tracks for future aeronautical communication.
This book is highly educational and informative for readers (researchers, engineers, technicians or students, for instance) who already have some basic knowledge of data communication networks, enabling them to quickly discover and understand the constraints, features and properties of aeronautical air–ground communication systems.