Software Reconfigurable State-of-the-Art Communication Suite for Fighter Aircraft

Communication systems are considered as one of the major requirements for the current and next generation fighter aircrafts to complete a mission successfully. Efficient net-centric warfare and situational awareness can be achieved with modernized communication system and high-end sensors. The conventional communication systems available consist of individual systems for each functionality. In such cases, the failure of one system leads to failure of the functionality of that system and the mission has to be completed without that system. Hence there is an urge to develop a state-of-the-art on-flight software reconfigurable communication system to provide better redundancy, successful completion of mission and efficient utilization of systems on-board for fighter aircraft. In this paper, the functionality of all the on-board communication systems is explained and the design of a state-of-the-art software re-configurable communication suite is proposed for fighter aircrafts. The highlight of this architecture is that the hardware resources are shared between the systems and incase of failure of one system, the other system shall be reconfigured on-flight to take up the functionality of the failed system. The software architecture employs software code reusability for easy debugging and code verification. The proposed system is based on the concept of Software Defined Radio (SDR) and the functionality is extended from hand-held radio to entire communication system of the aircraft.