Initial results on narrowband air-ground propagation channel modeling using opportunistic ADS-B measurement for coverage design

For making deployment of aeronautical surveillance systems successful, an appropriate propagation channel model should be selected in the coverage design. The selection of the channel models is particularly important for Automatic Dependent Surveillance — Broadcast (ADS-B) because it suffers from 1090 MHz co-channel interferences. Meanwhile, many aircraft have already started to transmit ADS-B signals. Therefore, as a new means of air-ground propagation study, ADS-B signals of target-of-opportunity can be measured. The resulting data covers various route, attitude, weather, aircraft models. Then, such large-scale data can be analyzed to verify the existing channel models and to derive empirical models and parameters. In this paper, discussions and a measurement are made to investigate the limitations and measurable propagation characteristics by the proposed approach.