The operation of TCP over aeronautical networks

Future initiatives on enhancing the current air traffic management (ATM) system aim at the integration of various communication systems enabling network centric operations. Therefore, reliable communication protocols and capable communication systems have to be provided in order to realize the eager goals of programs like SESAR and NextGen. Theoretically there are several possibilities where to place the reliable communication protocol but a main idea of the future aeronautical communication network is to use commercial of the shelf products (COTS). Thus, as it seems, there remains only a single candidate protocol, which TCP - a protocol in widespread use over the whole planet, used by millions of Internet users from day to day. It seems reasonable to consider the use of TCP in aeronautical networks as well however, there is one major drawback when using TCP over lossy, narrow band, and slow wireless communication links - it does not perform as well as over high-speed broadband interconnected wired networks. This paper investigates several possible options to TCP use in the aeronautical environment.