Ground Broadcast Service - Safe Flight 21

The FAA-initiated Safe Flight 21 program is a cooperative government/industry effort to evaluate enhanced aerodrome and aircraft capabilities based on evolving Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) technologies. Safe Flight 21 will demonstrate the in-cockpit display of traffic, weather, terrain and obstacle information for pilots and will provide improved information to controllers. The Ground Broadcast Service (GBS) will act as the main communication link between the Safe Flight 21 sensors and both the avionic and ground vehicle arenas. The data, collected and processed by multiple sensors, is routed to the GBS for reformatting, broadcast timing coordination, filtering and transmission to the user avionics. This paper describes the system specifications of the GBS as specified by the FAA Safe Flight 21 program. It also presents the complete functional requirements for the GBS as well as necessary interface and user avionics formats and protocols.