Internet Protocol for aeronautical communications

Civil aviation business is currently experiencing the beginning of an operational change from voice based toward data based control mechanisms. This change shall be accompanied through a technological improvement that is in particular a change from an ISO/OSI toward a TCP/IP based network infrastructure. This paper presents outcomes of two independent investigations of utilizing the initial specification for the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN) using Internet Protocol Suite (IPS) standards and protocols via aeronautical data links. Thereby, both studies had one common objective, namely the validation of the ATN/IPS via aeronautical data links. One study was conducted by University of Salzburg through the evaluation of simulations, while the other study was conducted by the Swedish air navigation service provider LFV through flight trials based on real protocol implementations. Despite the difference of the evaluation scenarios the conclusions that can be drawn from both studies are similar.