EDA toolbox for VHF Data Link system simulation

Commercial communication systems design software is usually shipped with libraries and toolboxes covering standards like GSM or UMTS. For designing aeronautical communication systems such ready-to-use libraries are rare. Low-level elements and functional blocks have to be adopted and used instead. In this paper a toolbox consisting of system elements for the use with electronic design automation software was developed. It enables radiofrequency design engineers to perform system level simulations using specialised components dedicated to aeronautical communication. For this, functional blocks within the physical layer of VHF Data Link were defined and made available. They cover basic radio frequency (RF) baseband operations as well as modulation, demodulation and power-ramp functionality. The library was tested and verified with a VHF Data Link Mode 4 signal generation application as well as with a VHF Data Link Mode 2 system simulation set-up. While the toolbox presented in this paper is intended to speed up development cycles by providing ready-to-use VHF Data Link functional blocks to radiofrequency system engineers, it is also a useful tool in signal generation and receiver testing.