Assessing flight information and traffic data services uplinked to flight test aircraft

Abstract

This report describes the analysis of uplinked data received on board specially configured test aircraft as part of the Implementation System Test (IST) program for the Surveillance and Broadcast Services System (SBSS). One of the final phases of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) SBSS test program involves the flight of test aircraft in various regions of the National Airspace System (NAS) as the SBSS infrastructure is deployed. The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (MITRE/CAASD) has developed a recording and analysis toolset (referred to in this paper as the CAASD Analysis Toolset (CAT)) for flight data received on the Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) data link in order to assess the performance of the Traffic Information Service Broadcast (TIS-B), Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS B) Rebroadcast (ADS R), and Flight Information Service Broadcast (FIS B) segments of the SBSS. This paper is based on a sample of flight data obtained during the “IST East” flight test campaign covering most of the eastern United States (U.S.). Specific objectives for the CAT are the following: verifying proper Radio Station (RS) configuration, assessing uplink connectivity for FISB, assessing continuity of uplinked traffic tracks, and verifying FIS-B payload data received on the aircraft matches the copy provided to the FAA's monitor system. Background on the SBSS approach to the uplink services is presented, followed by an explanation of each of some of the analysis outputs generated.