Modeling and simulation of the VDL mode 3 subnetwork in the ATN environment

This paper presents the modeling and simulation results of an international aeronautical mobile communications system operating within the environment of an international civil aviation internet. The ground-based aeronautical mobile communications system uses a network of ground stations to provide the desired airspace coverage utilizing the Very High Frequency (VHF) band (118-137 MHz) allocated for aviation and a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technique to control media access between aircraft and ground stations. Major performance parameters of interest are: transit end-to-end delays; overall connection establishment times; and protocol overheads resulting from the use of various upper layer protocol data units.