ROAD Value-based DME detection and OBE enhanced DME mitigation for LDACS

The ever-increasing air traffic and the necessity of deployment of emerging technologies demand advanced Air Traffic Management Systems (ATMS). The inability of the current voice and data communication links to support so-phisticated air traffic management systems owing to the spec-trum limitation made International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to recommend Future communication Infrastructure (FCI) the modernization of the existing ATMS. Recognizing the low spectrum utilization as another potential problem, LDACS is deployed as a coexisting, spectrum efficient and reliable infrastructure to replace the existing ATMS. The need for robust interference mitigation techniques in LDACS is extremely high as the interference arises due to the coexistence can affect the flight safety. This paper put forward a robust interference mitigation technique named as Rank Ordered Absolute Difference (ROAD) value-based Optimum Bayesian estimator enhanced Pulse Peak Limiter type 1 (ROPPL1) that sense and mitigate the prime interference contributor Distance Measuring Equipment (DME). The method employs ROAD statistics-based detection to sense the DME interference and the Optimum Bayesian Estimator (OBE) knowledge to mitigate the DME interference. The method outperformed existing interference mitigation techniques such as pulse blanking (PB), ROAD PB and ROAD value-based Genie aided estimation enhanced Pulse Peak Limiter type 1 (RGPPLl). The SNR savings of proposed ROPPL1 (at a Bit error rate of 10
⁻¹
with Pulse blanking is observed to be 2.54 dB.