Cooperative Data Transmission Implementations

This chapter begins with discussing the limitations of existing data transmission methods, such as satellite communication links and very high frequency (VHF) data links. It explores the use of VHF data link (VDL) mode 4, which allows aircraft out of range of a ground station to send data to nearby aircraft, creating a relay network until the information reaches a ground receiver. Besides the satellite and VDL mode 4 cooperative system, the chapter also discusses two concepts– aeronautical ad‐hoc networks (AANET) and software‐defined networking (SDN) – that can be used for airplane cooperative communications. An aircraft that intends to begin transferring data to another aircraft must first reserve a slot for transmission by sending at least three Request to Send (RTS) messages within each available channel. SDN is research area that can aid in transmitting Flight Data Recorder (FDR)/Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) data recorders in cooperative airplane communications.