A spread spectrum digital data link for aviation

Digital data links for aviation applications have come of age. The majority of data links employing narrow-band transceivers are susceptible to interference from RF sources beyond the range to signal sources of interest. This susceptibility dramatically reduces the probability of detecting or receiving desired signals. Spread spectrum transceivers offer a significant improvement in selectivity by virtue of the phenomenon known as process gain arising from spreading and despreading of the RF signal. This process gain can significantly reduce the number of interfering sources (by factors ranging from 4 to 16 for currently viable transceivers), which in turn has a significant positive impact on the probability of detecting desired signals in the presence of interference.<
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