Robert J. Kerczewski, Douglas J. Hoder, and Robert J. Zakrajsek

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

Satellite Communications for Aeronautics

Applications—Technology Development

and Demonstration

NASA/TM—2001-210766

March 2001
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Prepared for the

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sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Big Sky, Montana, March 10–17, 2001

Robert J. Kerczewski, Douglas J. Hoder, and Robert J. Zakrajsek

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

Satellite Communications for Aeronautics

Applications—Technology Development

and Demonstration

NASA/TM—2001-210766
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NASA/TM—2001-210766 1 

Satellite Communications for Aeronautics 

Applications–Technology Development and 

Demonstration 

Robert J. Kerczewski, Douglas J. Hoder, and Robert J. Zakrajsek 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

Glenn Research Center 

Cleveland, Ohio 44135 

Abstract-The National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA) is performing research and 

development to improve the safety and increase the 

capacity of the National Airspace System (NAS). 

Improved communications, especially to and from the 

aircraft flight deck, has been identified as an essential 

enabling technology for future improvements to the air 

traffic management system and aviation safety. 

NASA’s Glenn Research Center is engaged in research 

and development of satellite communications 

technologies for aeronautical applications. A mobile aero 

terminal has been developed for use with Ku Band 

commercial communications satellites. This experimental 

terminal will be used in mobile ground and air-based tests 

and demonstrations during 2000-2004. 

This paper will describe the basic operational parameters 

of the Ku Band aero terminal, the communications 

architecture it is intended to demonstrate, and the key 

technology issues being addressed in the tests and 

demonstrations. The design of the Ku Band aero terminal 

and associated ground testbed, planned tests and 

demonstrations, and results to date will be presented. 

INTRODUCTION

Substantial growth in aviation continues to put increased 

pressure on both the capacity and safety of the national 

and global airspace systems. In the United States, the

number of commercial flight delays and cancellations in 

the summer of 2000 exceeded the records set in the 

summer of 1999. The problem of constrained airspace 

will continue to grow as aviation traffic increases. 

The aviation accident rate has remained approximately 

constant for the last 30 years. As the number of flights 

increases, the total number of accidents will also increase. It 

is projected that, on average, a major aviation accident could 

occur every week within 20 years if the accident rate is not 

reduced. 

NASA has established two major research and development 

programs to address these issues. The Aviation System 

Capacity Program (ASCP) [1] is addressing many research 

issues dealing with improving the ability of the NAS to 

increase the overall throughput of aviation traffic. The 

Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) [2] is addressing a range of 

issues affecting the fatal aviation accident rate. For both 

programs, studies have indicated that a critical component 

needed to enable the fielding of new systems to address 

capacity and safety concerns is information dissemination. 

Improved communications systems and technologies 

necessary to implement strategies being developed in ASCP 

and AvSP are being developed and tested by NASA’s Glenn 

Research Center. 

Current communications systems within the NAS lack the 

bandwidth to allow implementation of planned future air 

traffic management systems and aviation safety 

improvements. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is 

planning a series of upgrades to the current com m unications 

links employed for air traffic control and other critical aviation 

communications links, as defined by the FAA’s National 

Airspace System Architecture Version 4.0 [3]. The primary 

improvements will consist of upgrades to the current analog 

voice based very high frequency (VHF) communications, 

which use ground based transmitters operating over 25kHz 

channels. Future VHF links will be digital data links, 

providing data and combined voice and data capabilities. The 

NAS 4.0 architecture calls for full phase-in of the digital data 

links by 2015. 
NASA/TM—2001-210766 2 

NASA’s research into capacity and safety enhancing 

aviation systems is focusing on advanced, integrated, data 

intensive systems, particularly important when 

considering radical new methods of air traffic 

management which are believed necessary to allow 

continued growth in aviation far into the future. These 

methods lie beyond the planning horizon of the NAS 4.0, 

and hence the communications systems currently being 

developed for installation within the next decade will still 

be inadequate to provide the capacity and connectivity 

required to support these advanced new systems. Further 

constraining the communications capacity is the limited 

availability of VHF spectrum for aeronautical uses. 

The NASA Glenn Research Center is considering future 

aeronautical communications system architectures that 

can address the capacity and connectivity constraints

. 

Although VHF systems will be used far into the future, 

due to the considerable infrastructure investment and 

proven reliability, a hybrid system consisting of groundbased and space-based communications links has the best 

potential for addressing the needs of future aeronautical 

communications. The space-based part of the 

architecture, which consists of communications links 

through satellites from aircraft-to-ground, ground-toaircraft, and aircraft-to-aircraft will require considerable 

development, experimentation and demonstration, and is 

the primary focus of the NASA Glenn aeronautical 

communications work described in this paper. 

APPLYING SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS TO

AERONAUTICS – APPROACHES AND ISSUES 

Two major studies performed for the NASA Glenn Research 

Center looked at communications requirements and 

approaches for air traffic management and weather 

information dissemination [4,5]. Several key conclusions 

from these studies support the concept of satellite 

communications as a major communications link in future 

aeronautical communications systems. Among these 

conclusions: satellite communications has many 

characteristics which are ideally suited to the aeronautical 

mobile environment; satellite communications has the 

necessary bandwidth to remove communications system 

constraints for the future NAS; broadband satellite 

communications can provide revenue generating passenger 

services which can pay for system installation and operation, 

providing simultaneous communications capacity for other

aeronautical needs; and satellite communications can fill

coverage and service gaps that terrestrial systems cannot fill, 

and can operate effectively in an integrated hybrid fashion. 

An example of an aeronautical communications system 

architecture consisting of a hybrid space/terrestrial approach is 

shown in Figure 1 [5]. In this suggested architecture, a 

satellite communications link provides a portion of traffic 

information services communications, while ground based 

services collect position location and other information 

broadcast from aircraft and transmit local traffic information. 

ADS-B

GND 

RCVR

Primary Secondary

ATC

Facility

UAT

Comm

Network

UAT Comm

Network

Comm

I/F

G round Systems Air / G round C omm Aircraft

Automation UAT

XCVR

SATCOM

RCVR

ADS-B

XCVR

AAIS

ADS-B

Processor

MFDS

•CDTI

L

A

N

A

C

N

E

T

W

O

R

K

VDL-B VDL-B

XCVR

VDL-B

Comm

Network

CSP

SATCOM

Figure 1 – A possible architecture for delivery of aeronautical traffic information services.
NASA/TM—2001-210766 3 

Other types of aeronautical services can also benefit from 

satellite communications providing either all or a portion 

of communications requirements, and there are similar 

architectures proposed for these services which include a 

hybrid of space and terrestrial communications links. 

Satellite communications can fill significant coverage 

gaps that terrestrial systems are physically unable to fill, 

such as remote geographic regions, oceanic regions, and 

mountainous regions where terrain can block groundbased line-of-sight paths. Satellites also have the 

advantage of being able to provide coverage at all 

altitudes and can broadcast to large geographic areas.

However, despite many recent technological advances in 

satellite communications, application to aeronautical 

needs has not been a major consideration. Hence, much 

development is necessary to apply satellite 

communications hardware designed for fixed groundbased systems to a mobile aeronautical environment. In 

order to be cost effective, systems designed for use on 

aircraft must be small, lightweight, and conform to the 

aircraft shape. They also must undergo rigorous and 

potentially very costly certification if intended for use in 

safety-critical applications, and must not interfere with 

other aircraft systems. This is a major challenge in 

applying satellite communications to the aeronautical 

communications issues outlined above. 

A second major challenge lies in developing the 

reliability, integrity and security of satellite 

communications for an aviation environment that requires 

far higher levels of these qualities than most ground 

applications. This will be a major psychological hurdle in 

gaining acceptance of satellite communications for safety 

critical aeronautical applications. Many years of 

technology development coupled with flight experiments 

and demonstrations of increasing complexity will be 

required. 

The NASA Glenn project described in the remainder of 

this paper is intended to begin the process of addressing 

the major issues which must be resolved to bring the 

benefits of satellite communications to bear on the safety 

and capacity of the future NAS: technology development, 

system safety, reliability, integrity and security, and 

experiments and demonstrations of component and 

system technology. 

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURAL APPROACH 

A variety of satellite communications approaches can be 

applied to aeronautical communications, such as different 

frequency bands, bandwidths, and antenna system 

designs. The satellite communications link can then be 

simply another communications hardware package on the 

aircraft, in addition to a number of already existing systems. 

But a real operational and economic gain can be achieved by 

applying a broadband satellite 

communications link to solution to cover a number of 

applications, thus reducing the total number of systems on the 

aircraft and mitigating the additional cost. If a satellite 

communication system of sufficiently broad bandwidth can be 

installed, services provided to passengers, such as internet 

connectivity and on-demand video, could actually subsidize 

the cost of installing new equipment and produce additional 

revenue. This would help solve a problem of providing an 

economic incentive for introducing new communications 

technology into existing aircraft fleets. 

For air traffic and safety critical messaging, security, integrity 

and reliability issues need to be resolved before passenger and 

safety-related com m unications could share the sam e 

communications equipment. In addition, message latency 

requirements may need to be considered in using 

geosynchronous satellite communications links that inherently 

contain about a one-quarter second round trip delay. 

However, current requirements for communication link 

latency will not necessarily apply to the advanced air traffic 

management methods being considered for the future. But 

decision support tools and system management algorithms 

being developed to support future air traffic management must 

take into account communication link parameters, such as lost 

or corrupted data packets, network congestion and slowdown, 

and temporary service interruptions in order to accommodate 

worst-case situations. 

The aeronautical communications architectures being 

considered for the future take into account different 

requirements in different aviation operational phases. For 

example, satellite communication links are more easily 

applied to en-route phases of flight, where traffic density is 

lower and the operational decision-making timeframe is 

longer. In a hybrid space/terrestrial system, the current VHF 

frequency channels, which do not suffer significant rain 

attenuation and signal latency, will continue to be the primary 

communications mode within the terminal area where traffic 

density is much greater. 

The overall data transmission requirements for future air 

traffic management methods are difficult to determine. A 

number of competing operational modes exist, ranging from 

complete aircraft autonomy to centralized, ground-based 

control of all aircraft. Highly automated decision support and 

system management algorithms may require very large 

amounts of aircraft state and intention data, updated very 

frequently, and significant on-going interaction between 

aircraft and ground. Operational modes with high degrees of 

aircraft autonomy will require aircraft-to-aircraft negotiation 

between all aircraft within a given radius, with the total 

communications load in a given region growing exponentially 

with aircraft density. This is an important area of research at 

the NASA Glenn Research Center. 
NASA/TM—2001-210766 4 

KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Several key satellite communications technologies have 

been identified for development for aeronautical 

application. The most important of these is electronically 

steerable phased array antennas. Other key technologies 

are fiber-optic signal distribution, fast acquisition 

modems with optimal coding, and antenna pointing and 

tracking algorithms. 

The phased array antenna is required to electronically 

establish accurate pointing from the aircraft to the satellite 

and maintaining that pointing during aircraft movement. 

Al though a mechanically steered antenna is technically 

feasible, the electronically steered phased array is 

preferred because it presents a much lower mechanical 

profile when mounted on the aircraft, significantly 

reducing drag and therefore lowering operating cost. In 

order to maintain a duplex link, both transmit and receive 

antennas are needed. To enable broadband data rates – 

256 kbps or more from the aircraft and 2 Mbps or more to 

the aircraft – antennas of sufficient size and power are 

needed to create a narrow antenna beam and maintain an 

adequate link margin. This generally requires more 

antenna array elements, adding to the cost, size and 

complexity of the antenna. Using higher frequencies, 

 Figure 2 – Ku Band transmit phased array antenna. 

 Figure 3 – Ku Band receive phased array antenna. 

such as Ka Band (20-30 GHz), enables reduced antenna size, 

but requires more technology development. NASA Glenn has 

sponsored technology development work, jointly with the U.S. 

Navy and the Boeing Company, to develop a phased array 

transmit antenna at Ku Band (12 GHz). This antenna, and a 

receive phased array antenna at Ku Band (14 GHz) which had 

been previously developed, form the core the NASA Glenn’s 

aero mobile satellite communications terminal described 

below. These antennas are shown in Figures 2 and 3. 

NASA Glenn is also currently co-sponsoring work with the 

U.S. Navy and the Boeing Company to develop phased array 

antennas that operate at Ka Band, and to develop antenna 

manufacturing processes that will reduce the costs of phased 

array antennas by at least a factor of ten. 

NASA Glenn is performing research and testing into fiber 

optic signal distribution systems that can provide broadband 

signal distribution in aircraft. In addition such a system would 

be able to combine several different types of communications 

signals from different sources and deliver them to different 

destinations using a single optical fiber. The fiber optic 

system would enable signals of much higher bandwidth to be 

distributed within an aircraft, and the ability to transmit many 

different signals simultaneously would reduce the number of 

cables required and also reduce electromagnetic interference. 

This system is now undergoing laboratory testing. 

Modulators and demodulators operating a broadband data 

rates must be able to acquire the modulated signal carrier as 

well as signal codes extremely fast in order to maintain a 

highly reliable system. NASA Glenn is performing and 

sponsoring research to identify and implement fast acquisition 

methods, and to determine optimal signal coding schemes for 

air-to-satellite links. In-house research into improved antenna 

pointing and tracking control algorithms is also underway. 

These efforts will feed new technologies into the aeronautical 

satellite experiment and demonstration program described 

below. 

AERO MOBILE KU BAND SATELLITE 

COMMUNICATIONS TERMINAL AND TESTBED

In order to perform experiments and demonstrations needed to 

enable the eventual integration of satellite communications 

into the aeronautical communications system, the aero mobile 

satellite communications terminal has been developed. The 

terminal will be used in ground and air mobile tests during 

2000-2004 to demonstrate technologies and system concepts. 

The terminal is intended to enable an experimental capability, 

rather than to serve as a model for future aeronautical satellite 

terminals. 

The aero mobile terminal is designed around the Ku Band 

phased array antennas that have been developed by Boeing 

through U.S. Navy and NASA sponsorship. The terminal is 

capable of connecting to standard data sources and providing 

transmission of data through any standard commercial Ku 

band satellite to any location within the satellite’s coverage 
NASA/TM—2001-210766 5 

area. The terminal can conversely receive data 

originating from any location, transmitted through a 

standard Ku Band antenna. The size of the antennas 

allows a nom inal transm it data rate of 256 kbps and a 

nominal receive data rate of 2.048 Mbps through a 

standard commercial Ku Band satellite transponder. 

The terminal uses standard QPSK modems for 

transmission and reception, and can optionally provide a 

spread spectrum modulated signal. Frequency up and 

down converters translate the modem input and output to 

the phased array antenna operating frequencies. 

The aero mobile terminal has been designed to be 

mounted either in a van for ground mobile experiments or 

in a NASA research aircraft for air mobile experiments. 

The ground mobile terminal van, with transmit and 

receive phased array antennas mounted on top, is shown 

in Figure 4. In the ground mobile configuration, a gyro 

system is used to feed inertial navigation information to 

the antenna controller to enable antenna pointing to be 

maintained during mobile operations. For the air mobile 

configuration, connection to the aircraft’s inertial 

navigation system provides the navigation information 

required for antenna pointing. 

Figure 4 – Ku Band aero mobile satellite communications 

terminal mounted in the ground mobile van. 

In conjunction with the aero mobile terminal, a fixed 

ground testbed is being developed which will enable the 

creation of realistic test scenarios. The ground testbed 

will emulate a region of airspace, including the 

communications occurring between aircraft and ground, 

so that a ground mobile or air mobile test can be 

conducted within an air traffic setting adequate to test and 

demonstrate the performance of the mobile terminal in a 

system environment. The testbed will include an 

experiment communications network that can be used to 

test the performance or air traffic control algorithms that 

include a satellite link within the information transmission 

links. This will provide important verification of the 

ability of satellite communication links to operate within a 

hybrid aeronautical communications network in a 

transparent fashion, and enable any real problems with such 

hybrid networks to be identified and addressed. 

EXPERIMENT AND DEMONSTRATION GOALS

The primary purpose for developing the aero mobile Ku Band 

satellite communications terminal and testbed is to provide a 

test environment for experimental evaluation and 

demonstration of satellite communications component and 

system technologies for future aeronautical applications. In 

addition to evaluating and demonstrating the performance of 

the satellite communication technologies themselves, the aero 

mobile terminal is used to demonstrate relevant aeronautical 

communications applications, such as transmission of air 

traffic control information, flight information services such as 

graphical weather imagery, and other air traffic management 

applications such as traffic information and situational 

awareness display information. Demonstration of undegraded 

perform ance of advanced air traffic control and air traffic 

management algorithms and decision support software tools is 

a long-term goal of this facility. 

The majority of experiments will take place in the ground 

mobile configuration. Flight testing is expensive, although 

necessary to evaluate performance in the high speed, high 

altitude airborne environment. Flight testing also allows much 

greater distances to be covered during testing, enabling 

evaluation of different communication link situations, such as 

the impact of weather on the link margin. For realistic and 

convincing demonstrations of satellite communications for 

airborne applications, only fight test will suffice. However, 

system functional testing, mobility testing, performance of 

antenna control performance, testing of application 

performance all can be accomplished through ground mobile 

testing. 

To summarize, there are three major experiment and 

demonstration goals: 

1. Evaluate and demonstrate the performance of the 

satellite communications equipment, in a fixed, 

ground mobile, and air mobile environment. 

2. Evaluate and demonstrate the performance of satellite 

communications links in supporting the operation of 

relevant aeronautical communications applications. 

3. Evaluate and demonstrate the performance of satellite 

communications links in a hybrid aeronautical 

communication system/network environment. 

EXPERIMENT PLANS AND LATEST RESULTS

The mobile aeronautical satellite communications experiments 

and demonstrations will take place during the years 2000 to 

2004. During this time, ground mobile experiments will be 

planned periodically during times in which the mobile 

terminal is not installed in an aircraft for flight testing. It is 

anticipated that three to five flight opportunities will occur 

during the experiment program. 
NASA/TM—2001-210766 6 

Initial ground based tests in 2000 are intended to develop 

and verify the basic functionality of the mobile testbed, 

including communications hardware performance, 

communications link performance, and antenna control 

performance. The initial flight test opportunity, 

scheduled for December, 2000, will verify these functions 

in an air mobile environment, and attempt basic 

application file transfers. Some initial results of the 

December 2000 flights tests are given below. 

During 2001 and 2002, development of relevant 

aeronautical communications applications will take place. 

As applications are completed, they will be integrated into 

the mobile terminal testbed for evaluation and 

demonstration. The fixed ground testbed will be 

developed and initial laboratory experiments will occur. 

By the end of this period, the basic emulation of regional 

airspace and air traffic test scenarios are expected to be 

undergoing testing. Ground mobile experiments will 

continue with gradually increasing levels of complexity. 

Flight test opportunities will be used to test application 

performance and integration of the airborne satellite link 

with the experiment communications network. 

During 2003 and 2004, hardware and systems technology 

development that have been successfully completed will 

be integrated into the aero mobile terminal. Application 

development and testing will continue, and increasingly 

complex applications will be integrated and tested. The 

development of the fixed ground testbed will continue, 

and the evaluation demonstration of application 

performance in a realistic air traffic environment will be 

the goal as the end of the experiment period approaches. 

Evaluation of hybrid communications system 

performance during both ground and air mobile tests will 

be performed. 

Initial aero mobile terminal tests occurred during the 

summer of 2000. Functional testing of the system was in 

a static (non-mobile) mode indicated basic performance 

of the system. Significant work was required to develop 

and integrate the gyro-based inertial navigation reference 

system with the antenna controller. Mobile testing with 

transmission from a fixed ground transmitter to the 

ground mobile van was successful, and receive antenna 

tracking during mobile operations was verified. Coded 

(Viterbi and Reed-Solomon coding) bit error rate of zero 

was maintained at data rates up to 2.048 Mbps during 

mobile operations. 

RECENT FLIGHT TESTS ON THE NASA DRYDEN 

RESEARCH CENTER DC-8 

At the time of final preparation of this paper, initial flight 

tests have been initiated and the first results observed. 

The aero mobile terminal was installed in a NASA 

experiment aircraft DC-8 operated at the NASA Dryden 

Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, 

California. During several flight tests at altitudes up to 

40,000 feet, successful operation of the aero-mobile terminal 

in a duplex communication mode was established. Transmit 

data rates (from the aircraft through the Ku Band satellite to 

the earth station at NASA Glenn) of 256 kbps were achieved. 

Receive data rates (from NASA Glenn through the satellite to 

the aircraft) of 2.048 Mbps were achieved. Several basic 

communications network applications, including e-mail 

sending and receiving, Internet web browsing, and voice-overIP were tested simultaneously and performed very well. The 

first initial tests of aeronautical telecommunications network 

(ATN) over broadband satellite included the transmission of 

Controller Pilot Data Link Communications application 

messages, which were also transmitted successfully. The DC8 flight tests are continuing, and the terminal and phased array 

antenna performances will be characterized, as well as 

additional communications applications. 

SUMMARY

The NASA Glenn Research Center is engaged in research and 

development of satellite communications technologies for 

aeronautical applications, in support of NASA’s goals for 

increasing the capacity and improving the safety of the 

National Airspace System. The NASA Glenn program 

consists of development of key aeronautical satellite 

communications technologies and the evaluation and 

demonstration of aeronautical satellite communication 

component and system technologies, with the goals of 

obtaining adequate technical performance and fostering the 

eventual acceptance and deployment of satellite 

communications as part of the aeronautical communications 

system. 

NASA Glenn has co-sponsored the development of Ku Band 

transmit phased array antennas and is actively working on 

other key technologies. The Ku Band transmit phased array, 

together with a receive phased array antenna, are the basis for 

an aero mobile satellite communications terminal and testbed. 

The terminal and testbed are being used in a series of ground 

and air mobile experiments and demonstrations. These 

experiments and demonstrations will evaluate and demonstrate 

the performance of satellite communications equipment, the 

performance of aeronautical applications over satellite links, 

and the performance of satellite links within a hybrid 

aeronautical communications system. The initial flight tests in 

December, 2000 established successful duplex 

communications operation of the aero mobile terminal and 

demonstrated both IP and ATN network based 

communications through satellite from an operating aircraft. 

REFERENCES

[1] NASA Aviation System Capacity Program, 

http://www.asc.nasa.gov/ 

[2] NASA Aviation Safety Program, http://avsp.larc.nasa.gov/ 

[3] FAA National Airspace System Architecture Version 4.0, 

http://www.faa.gov/nasarchitecture/version4.htm 
NASA/TM—2001-210766 7 

[4] NASA Advanced Air Transportation 

Technologies (AATT) Program Free Flight Satellite 

Communication Study, Final Report, Lockheed 

Martin Aeronautical Systems, for NASA Glenn 

Research Center, August, 1998. 

[5] Communications System Architecture Development 

For Air Traffic Management & Aviation Weather 

Information Dissemination, NASA Research Task Order 

24, Final Report, Science Applications International 

Corporation, for NASA Glenn Research Center under 

Contract NAS2-98002, May, 2000. 

Robert J. Kerczewski has been 

involved with research and 

development of satellite 

communications systems and 

applications since 1982, for the 

Analex Corporation and NASA. 

He holds a BEE degree from 

Cleveland State University 

(1982) and an MSEE degree 

from Case Western Reserve 

University (1987). At NASA, he has managed the High 

Burst Rate Interference Experiment, Advanced Space 

Communications Laboratory, and Telemammography 

Using Satellite Communications Project. He is currently 

the Project Manager for the Advanced Communications 

for Air Traffic Management element of NASA’s Advanced 

Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) Project. 

216–433–3434, rkerczewski@grc.nasa.gov

Douglas J. Hoder has been 

involved with design and 

engineering RF communcations 

systems for the last seventeen 

years. He has worked in the 

military electronics, television 

and cellular phone industries 

for the Georgia Tech Research 

Institute, Scientific-Atlanta and 

Motorola, Inc. He is the 

co-inventor on several US and foreign patents. He holds 

degrees from the Cleveland State University, in 

Cleveland, OH, (BEE, 1983) and the Georgia Institute of 

Technology, in Atlanta, GA (MSEE, 1986). He has been 

with NASA Glenn since 1990. At NASA, he managed the 

development of the Gigabit Satellite Network, and served 

as Project Engineer for the ACTS High Data Rate 

Program. His current work involves high performance RF 

communications for air transport. 

216–433–3438, Douglas.J.Hoder@grc.nasa.gov 

Robert J. Zakrajsek has been 

involved with design and 

engineering of Telemetry, Antenna, 

and RF communications systems at 

NASA for the last thirty seven years. 

He holds a BSEE degree from the 

Ohio University, in Athens, OH, 

(1963). He has been with NASA 

Glenn since 1963. Where he 

managed the Microwave Systems 

Laboratory and served as Project Engineer for the Sert II, 

ASDAR, Sphinx, and Aero-X Programs. His current work 

involves both Weather Information Communications for 

Aviation Safety and high performance communications for air 

transport. 

216–433–3487, Robert.J.Zakrajsek@lerc.nasa.gov
This publication is available from the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information, 301–621–0390.

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11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

12a. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

13. ABSTRACT (Maximum 200 words)

14. SUBJECT TERMS

17. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

 OF REPORT

16. PRICE CODE

15. NUMBER OF PAGES

20. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT

Unclassified Unclassified

Technical Memorandum

Unclassified

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field

Cleveland, Ohio 44135–3191

1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank)

10. SPONSORING/MONITORING

 AGENCY REPORT NUMBER

9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Washington, DC 20546–0001

Available electronically at http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/GLTRS

March 2001

NASA TM—2001-210766

E–12695

WU–727–01–00–00

13

A03

Satellite Communications for Aeronautics Applications—

Technology Development and Demonstration

Robert J. Kerczewski, Douglas J. Hoder, and Robert J. Zakrajsek

Satellite communications; Aeronautical communications

Unclassified -Unlimited

Subject Category: 04 Distribution: Nonstandard

Prepared for the 2001 Aerospace Conference sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,

Big Sky, Montana, March 10–17, 2001. Responsible person Robert J. Kerczewski, organization code 6150,

216–433–3434.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is performing research and development to improve

the safety and increase the capacity of the National Airspace System (NAS). Improved communications, especially

to and from the aircraft flight deck, has been identified as an essential enabling technology for future improvements

to the air traffic management system and aviation safety. NASA's Glenn Research Center is engaged in research

and development of satellite communications technologies for aeronautical applications. A mobile aero terminal

has been developed for use with Ku band commercial communications satellites. This experimental terminal will

be used in mobile ground and air-based tests and demonstrations during 2000–2004. This paper will describe the

basic operational parameters of the Ku Band aero terminal, the communications architecture it is intended to

demonstrate, and the key technology issues being addressed in the tests and demonstrations. The design of the Ku

Band aero terminal and associated ground testbed, planned tests and demonstrations, and results to date will be

presented.