Federal Aviation Administration, 800 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C., 20591

R -- NEW GENERATION AIR/GROUND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM POC Product Engineer, Ed Cornell, AND-330, telephone (202) 358-5206 INFORMATION ON INDUSTRY TRENDS, PLANS AND DEVELOPMENTAL ACTIVITIES RELATED TO A PLANNED NEW GENERATION AIR/GROUND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR PLANNING PURPOSES The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a new program to replace the air-to-ground system currently used for voice communications between pilots and air traffic controllers. The new system will satisfy the current and identified future functional requirements which can not be met using the current voice communications system. The capabilities of the planned system would include: (1) ensuring that available RF spectrum can be used efficiently for voice and data requirements, (2) reducing susceptibility to RFI, (3) improving communications system security, (4) supporting remote maintenance monitoring and (5) providing consistent voice quality over a range of operating conditions. It is anticipated that the new system will incorporate a multi-mode radio operating in the VHF band utilizing digital modulation and time division multiple access (TDMA) to provide a flexible mix of voice and data channels within 25 kilohertz channels and be backwards compatible with existing AM radios. New national and international standards are being developed for TDMA through ICAO. RTCA has released two documents, RTCA/DO-224 and RTCA/DO-225, that are pertinent to this approach. Ideally, the FAA would like to acquire a non-developmental system based on existing technology, rather than to develop a system which is designed to meet its specific needs. To this end, a market survey is being conducted to determine what products or technologies are currently available, what developmental activities are under way, and what products/technologies are expected to be available within the next five years. This information will be helpful in the development of a program which will permit the acquisition of a non-developmental system. The Next Generation Air/Ground Communications (Nex_Gen_A/G) program has been included on the FAA's home page, under FAA Gopher, on the World Wide Web. All interested parties should contact Mr. Ed Cornell, Product Engineer at (202) 358-5206 before December 1, 1995. This request seeks informatio only and does not constitute a request for a technical or a cost proposal. The Government will not pay for any information received nor reimburse any cost associated with this request. (0306)

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