Flexible Multimode Avionics Enabled by Hyper Integrated Software Defined Radio Solutions

Today's air traffic congestion in European airspace needs to be urgently addressed. The existing aviation infrastructure requires substantial improvements to be able to sustain more than 13 million flights/year by 2030 and close to 50.000 flights/day in peak periods, as estimated in the recent longer-term traffic forecast of EUROCONTROL. A key initiative to optimize the capacity of the air traffic system is the deployment of high-speed broadband aeronautical data communications, improving the air-ground connectivity, initially through a seamless evolution from legacy to cutting-edge technologies (multilink). It is vital to address the performance shortcomings of legacy data link technologies while offering solutions to support more advanced applications and to enhance cybersecurity/resilience. New aeronautical operational concepts, such as trajectory-based operations, must be introduced. A multilink concept, where multiple air-ground data link technologies will coexist, entails the availability in the cockpit of programmable and reconfigurable multi-mode avionics. That calls for solutions relying on software defined radio (SDR) technologies, accommodating multiple waveforms and enabling various applications to run in one common “box”. This design would foster hardware rationalization and highly integrated architectures. The benefits of introducing SDR for aviation include the ability to reconfigure and modify the supported communication functions in accordance with the local requirements. Emerging air traffic management requirements and services could be implemented by adding waveforms through software updates avoiding costly and cumbersome hardware/equipment retrofits. In one sentence: “multilink on the ground calls for multimode avionics in the aircraft”. A new SDR-based flexible aviation radio would increase the overall connectivity and interoperability through future communications infrastructure (FCI) technologies, but feasibility was never fully demonstrated on the basis of a solution with sufficient level of integration. Plans to introduce SDR as the basis for aviation radiocommunications have been hampered by insufficient integration avionics architectures together with uncertain technical performance and a number of other shortcomings. Integration of an innovative SDR airborne solution in a wider multilink context, consistent with ATN/IPS concept, is an absolute must but depends on additional research efforts including validation. The adequate level of integration could be reached through SDR digital processing functions embedded in the existing Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) Core System.