IRIS IOC Capacity Assessment Report: External version

Kurt Eschbacher, Rym Feliachi, Amar Mody, Luca Pandolfi

Research output: Book/Report/Legal commentaryResearch reportpeer-review

Abstract

Satellite Communication for Air Traffic Management (Iris) is a major programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Inmarsat that has developed a satellite-based air–ground communication system for Air Traffic Management (ATM) as a complement to existing datalink services.
The service will be operational by end of 2022. At this stage of the project, it is important to demonstrate that the existing Inmarsat satellite infrastructure (based on so called L-band I4 operational satellite constellation) is capable of supporting the traffic demand required to alleviate VDL-m2 until 2040 and beyond. This is particularly relevant in a context of high risks of a congested VDL2 network in the mid-term at the same time of growing needs for digital exchanges to support improved Air Traffic (ATS) and Airlines Operational Services (AOC).
The study performed by the Iris consortium and presented hereafter demonstrated that Iris, which today is the only technology-ready complementary solution, can deliver the required ATS performances with wide margins in terms of available spectrum to effectively complement VDL-m2 by off-loading traffic that otherwise would not be supported by existing VDL infrastructure.
This report presents the outcomes from the capacity analysis contracted within the current Iris project.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages46
VolumeIRIS-S2-OS-REP-INM-0332
Publication statusPublished - 21 Sept 2020

Publication series

NameClassification: Proprietary information, Confidential
PublisherEASA, ESA, EUROCONTROL, SDM, SJU, INMARSAT

Fields of Science and Technology Classification 2012

  • 102 Computer Sciences
  • 103 Physics, Astronomy
  • 202 Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Information Engineering
  • 101 Mathematics

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