The operational environment for communication systems is becoming increasingly complex with the rapid growth and expansion of military, civil, and commercial wireless technology. This coupled with an increase in total air traffic in many large urban areas across the country will challenge both pilots and air traffic controllers in the future. The introduction of numerous new complex waveforms and updated air traffic control methods have established a need for software defined radio's with capability for future expansion without major hardware alterations and the associated complex test and deployment that follow. The application of this software defined technology to the commercial aviation world may be realized in the Multi-Mode Digital Avionics (MMDA) system. This Software Defined Radio (SDR) approach will allow multiple functions to be hosted within a single radio leveraging the exponential growth in raw computing power and the ability to create RF and digital waveforms using software and firmware techniques. Software technology will allow multiple types of waveforms to be hosted on a single radio platform including voice, navigation, surveillance and data link. Commercial and civil aviation will require a cost effective approach in order to gain wide acceptance. The US Department of Defense is developing Software Defined Radio technology in the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program. This technology can be leveraged into applicability to the commercial and civil aviation community. By leveraging technology from this program including waveforms, algorithms and cryptographic technology, a significant reduction in the risk of development and deployment for the MMDA realized. The use of CORBA based software approaches and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) developed on JTRS can significantly reduce the development risk associated with the porting of these waveforms and techniques to the MMDA system. Accomplishing this technology insertion will require the implementation of a key set of requirements that include a low cost approach applicable not only to large commercial transport aircraft but also include commercial, business aircraft and civil aviation (personal) aircraft. A low cost approach is more critical to user acceptance than technology insertion since many of the deployment applications are driven strictly by affordability. With future air traffic control relying less and less on direct voice interface between pilots and controllers security of digital data links will become a significant technological challenge. Positive identification between pilots and controllers as well as anti-spoofing, anti-hijack techniques will be necessary to ensure safety within heavily traveled air corridors.
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