Spread spectrum design for aeronautical communication system with radio frequency interference

Communication link maintenance is crucial for aeronautical systems operations. To ensure the reliability, robustness, and security of aeronautical communication links; we investigate various types of interference in aeronautical communication systems, which can be categorized into unintentional and intentional interference. An interference model is built and incorporated into an aeronautical communication link design, where spread spectrum techniques are employed to mitigate the interference effects. To ensure comprehensive communication link quality-of-services, a direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) and frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) are investigated and compared. Turbo coding is employed in conjunction with DSSS/FHSS for overall interference mitigation and performance evaluations. As a practical use case, the Rician fading channel is evaluated when analyzing the data link performances for three phases of air traffic surface management: taxing, takeoff/landing, and departure/approach scenarios. The results demonstrate consideration for future NextGen avionics designs for security and maintenance of communication links between the aircraft and air traffic control operations.