A new white paper entitled “Wireless Data-link for Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Requirements, Challenges and Design Ideas,” has just been published by Dr. Raj Jain,Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis and Fred Templin of Boeing. The full paper can be seen here: Wireless Data Links
ABSTRACT:
The key challenges in the design of data-links for UAS systems compared to other wireless links is the long range of distances and speeds that need to be covered. The amount of spectrum available in the L-Band is not sufficient to support video applications common in UASs and so dual-band designs using both L-Band and C-Band are being considered. For L-Band, two projects funded by EUROCONTROL L-Band Digital Aeronautical Communications Systems 1 and 2 (L-DACS1 and L-DACS2) are often mentioned for use in UAS also. We briefly discuss issues with their use for UAS. Then we discuss several issues in UAS datalink design including availability, networking, pre-emption, and chaining. We also propose ways to mitigate interference with other systems in the L-Band.