Performance of L-band aeronautical communication system candidates in the presence of multiple DME interferers

Aeronautical vehicle use, and consequently, air-to-ground communication systems, are growing rapidly. A growing portion of these vehicles are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operating in civil aviation systems. As a consequence of this growth, air traffic volume for these vehicles is increasing dramatically, and it is estimated that traffic density will at least double by 2025. This traffic growth has led civil aviation authorities to explore development of future communication infrastructures (FCI). The L-band digital aeronautical communication system one (L-DACS1) is one of the air-ground (AG) communication systems proposed by Eurocontrol. L-DACS1 is a multicarrier communication system whose channels will be deployed in between Distance Measurement Equipment (DME) channels in frequency. DME is a transponder-based radio navigation technology, and its channels are distributed in 1 MHz frequency increments in the L-band spectrum from 960 to 1164 MHz. In this paper we investigate the effect of DME as the main interference signal to AG FCI systems. Recently we proposed a new multicarrier L-band communication system based on filterbank multicarrier (FBMC), which has some significant advantages over L-DACS1. In this paper we briefly describe these systems and compare the performance of L-DACS1 and FBMC communication systems in the coverage volume of one cell of an L-band communication cellular network working in the area of multiple DME stations. We will show the advantage and robustness of the L-band FBMC system in suppressing the DME interference from several DME ground stations across a range of geometries. In our simulations we use a channel model proposed for hilly/suburban environments based on the channel measurement results obtained by NASA Glenn Research Center. We compare bit error ratio (BER) results, power spectral densities for L-DACS1 and FBMC communication systems, and show the advantages of FBMC as a promising candidate for FCI systems.