Air-Ground SWIM Demonstration over Extended AeroMACS –Tracking, Antenna Placement and Handover Evaluations–

Abstract

System Wide Information Management (SWIM) provides a digital data-sharing infrastructure that includes the standardization of the data format and exchange protocol internationally so that the required information can be shared among related civil aviation stakeholders efficiently and safely. In our project, we study the availability of the Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communications System (AeroMACS) as a wireless medium to achieve Aircraft Access to SWIM (AAtS) around the airport. We carried out flight experiments with an AeroMACS prototype and SWIM test bed over Sendai City to confirm the possibility of expanding AeroMACS coverage. In this paper, we focus on tracking, antenna placement and handover evaluations. First, the results of tracking tests show that our system can track the aircraft by using only ADS-B position reports and keep the communication link between the base station and the aircraft. Second, the results of antenna placement tests show that both the main and sub antennas for large aircraft should be mounted at the bottom of the aircraft body to obtain higher combined gain. On the other hand, the main and sub antennas for small aircraft should be mounted at the bottom and top of the aircraft body respectively, to obtain diversity gain during the aircraft turn. Third, the results of handover tests show that our system needs parameter optimization regarding handover in the air. Finally, we demonstrate SWIM-based information sharing over extended AeroMACS coverage.