An aeronautical-mobile satellite experiment

The authors describe the results of a recently completed joint US NASA/US FAA/International Maritime Satellite (INMARSAT) satellite experiment using a land-mobile satellite communication terminal developed by the Jet Propulsion Lab. The experiment was performed in two parts during 1989. The first segment of the experiment consisted of establishing a full duplex 4800-b/s digital data and voice communication link through the INMARSAT Marecs B2 satellite between Atlantic City, NJ, and Southway, CT. The second segment consisted of establishing the same communication link between Southbury and an aircraft flying along the East Coast of the US. During both segments, a series of tests was performed to characterize the terminal performance over the links. The experimental setup and the results of the speech and data experiments are presented. Any differences in performance between theory/simulation laboratory, and field operation are emphasized and analyzed