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A STUDY OF MULTI-CARRIER TRANSMISSON FOR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL COMMUNICATIONS IN C BAND

HO Dac Tu and Shigeru SHIMAMOTO
Graduate School of Global Information and Telecommunication Studies, Waseda University 1-3-10 Nishi-Waseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-0051 Japan E-mail: hodactu@suou.waseda.jp ; shima@waseda.jp

ABSTRACT In present times, air traffic control (ATC) systems, which are using a limited VHF band (118-137MHz), have faced several serious problems especially in system capacity and spectrum usage efficiency. In air navigation, there is a so-called C band (5030-5150MHz), which is being assigned worldwide for Microwave Landing System (MLS). In reality, one part of this band is not being used. We evaluated and realized its applicability for ATC communications, then assume to use in our next evaluations. Based on a typical propagation model in ATC, we compute Root Mean Square (RMS) delay spread and Doppler shift spread in C band. With many advantages of multi-carrier transmission technique as theoretical evaluations, we propose two system-models for ATC communications based on the combination of OFDM and conventional multiple access schemes. They are OFDM-FDMA (OFDMA) and OFDM-CDMA (MC-CDMA). From these two system-models, we carry out computer simulations for the two systems in terms of channel performance. Our results show that, OFDMA is the most promising candidate for ATC communications in the future. This model deserves the striking selection for the advanced air-ground digital link that should be considered in ATC communications. Key words: Air Traffic Control, OFDMA, MC-CDMA, Rice factor. 1. INTRODUCTION In air traffic control communication, radio system between ground and aircraft stations have employed Very High Frequency (VHF) band [1] which was limited from 118-137MHz. This system played the most important function because its main responsibility is to provide aircraft route, route guidance, weather bulletin informationetc to ensure the safety of each flight. In present time, VHF Amplitude Modulation channel has been used for voice communications among air traffic controllers and pilots. The congestion of air traffic has contributed to system inefficiencies such as aircraft delay, diminishing airline profits and most seriously a compromise in the safety of passengers and flight crew. Although VHF digital link mode 2-VDL2 [2] has being used a little but it did not show a clear capability to solve those problems for ATC. In reality other VDL systems such as VDL mode 3 [3] and 4 [4] are also being studied for this communication but there was no significant difference between these systems in terms of capability. That was the reason why ATC communication faced to channel capacity limitation and an inefficient channel performance situation. Nowadays, aircraft density has increased rapidly especially at big airports such as in European countries, America and Japanetc. Therefore, necessary information to be transmitted through radio channel is increasing very fast. Currently, a part of C band is assigned for Microwave Landing System (MLS) [1] in air navigation. This band is being used partly and not popular in all countries because of a minor commercial success. The unused band therefore is now assumed to be used for ATC communications [5]. In the state of arts, OFDM technology has been considered the most efficient channel performance for terrestrial mobile communication under the combination with other conventional multiple access methods. We introduced system models for OFDM-FDMA and OFDM-CDMA used in air traffic control then compared their channel performance through computer simulations. 2. WAVE PROPAGATION IN C BAND 2.1. Frequency Distribution According to [1], a so-called C frequency band which is being used in Microwave Landing System (MLS) is assigned from 5030MHz to 5150MHz. As explained above, we assumed to use and now

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distribute this band for ATC purpose. Figure 1 showed the two ways to use C band for wide band communication applications.

In general, each flight belongs to four typical phases including Parking, Taxi, Take-off/Arriving and Enroute [8]. During these phases, Rice factor at Parking/Taxi phase was very low and it increased gradually in Take off/Landing and En-route phases. Table 1 illustrated some numerical values of this factor calculated from Fig.3
Table 1 Typical Rice factor at different phases of a flight Phase name Distance range Value range

Fig. 1 Frequency distribution of C band case 1

Parking Taxi Take-off/Arriving En-route

0.0-0.21 km 0.21-2.1 km 2.1-20 km 20-300 km

0 dB 0- 7 dB 10 dB 15 dB

Fig. 2 Frequency distribution of C band case 2

In reality, to introduce the wave propagation of C band in ATC, we need to do many experiments and computations which have been done in [6], [8]. Therefore we would like to continue with the main point in this paper was the evaluation of OFDMFDMA and OFDM-CDMA in the consideration of channel performance. 3. OFDM-FDMA FOR ATC 3.1 System Model Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) was not a new technique, but its application in a special communication like air traffic control is new. With OFDM, it was expected to satisfy the requirements of the next generation air traffic control systems. In ATC, time delay and Doppler shift were the most considered problems to any radio system especially in ATC, because of its long distance and a very high speed of aircraft. These problems were expected to be solved when applying OFDM technology. Figure 4 described a model of OFDM-FDMA system designed for air traffic control purpose. In this model, each aircraft was assigned by one sub-carrier or one sub-carrier frequency. Signals from users were firstly mapped and rectangular pulse making process then modulated at their own sub-carrier frequencies respectively. Modulation scheme was chosen as QPSK. Modulated signal was converted into time domain through IFFT block then additional processes were also done before transmitting. Channel in this situation was Rice fading channel and noise was assumed as AWGN.

2.2. Analysis of Rice Factor In the experiment [5], received signal distribution belongs to Nakagami-Rice distribution because it was in the multi-path propagation model (direct path and reflected paths). According to this model, the ratio between direct path power and reflected paths power which was so-called Rice factor [6]. This factor was a typical parameter which reflects wave propagation condition. Figure 3 showed the dependency of Rice factor on distance d from the aircraft to the ground station [7].

Fig. 3 The relation between Rice factor and distance d

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limited value of 2s max5s if ground antenna gain was set at 1020dBi. This value need to be increased if ground station antenna gain gets smaller. In addition, to increase the channel performance by reducing the error rate, Forward Error CorrectionFEC, with convolutional coding and soft detection Viterbi decoding were applied. The code rate was selected as R=1/2 and constraint length as K=7.
Table 2 Parameters for OFDM-FDMA simulation

Parameter name
Properties of Channel Propagation

Value C band f0 =5100 MHz B = 2.56 MHz max= 25 s 300-400Hz 1000km/h 1020dBi K=5,10,15dB QPSK TS = 50 s TG =10 s TOFDM =60s 128kbit/s NC = 128 128 fC =20KHz QPSK 5000 Hz 8 (NC/16) Convolutional Code Code rate R=1/2 and constraint length L=7 Viterbi decoding with soft detection

Frequency band Carrier frequency System bandwidth Spread delay maximum Doppler spread maximum Aircraft speed Ground antenna Rice factor K
Properties of OFDM System

Fig. 4 OFDM-FDMA model for air traffic control

In reality, depends on the required data bit rate, differential modulation schemes could be applied properly. In this case the bit rate was 128kbit/s therefore QPSK was suitable for data modulation scheme. In order to avoid inter carrier interference (ICI) and inter symbol interference (ISI), adding guard time and a guarantee spectrum in design were indispensable [9][10]. By this way, such interferences were eliminated and channel performance of OFDM system was improved significantly. 3.2 Simulation Parameters and Results Table 2 illustrated all parameters used for OFDMFDMA simulations. In C band, Doppler spread was calculated at 400Hz [7] when ground antenna gain was set at 20dBi. To ensure ICI/ISI was low, sub-carrier spacing was designed many times larger than Doppler spread value and symbol duration was much larger than spread delay maximum value. Therefore, a value of 20 KHz was designed for sub-carrier spacing and 60s was for total symbol duration. Spread delay has a

Modulation OFDM symbol duration Guard interval time Total symbol duration Carrier bit rate No. of carriers FFT length Sub-carrier spacing Modulation Doppler shift frequency Guard interval length Encoding/Decoding

Based on those parameters, the following figure showed the simulation result:

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Fig. 6 MC-CDMA model in case of one user

Fig. 5 Result of OFDM-FDMA channel performance

According to figure 5, at BER required for voice communication in ATC was 10-3 [3], an Eb/N0 was required at least 13dB (at Rice factor K=15dB). From now, we start with the system model and the evaluation of channel performance with OFDMCDMA system. 4. OFDM-CDMA FOR ATC 4.1 System Model The principle of OFDM-CDMA combination is to distribute the information of one user on several subcarriers by spreading. To obtain several sub-carriers Nc in a fixed bandwidth B, OFDM is used [11], resulting in a sub-carrier bandwidth of B/Nc. By using orthogonal Walsh-Hadamard, spreading sequences with length L, a maximum of Kmax=L users can share L subcarriers simultaneously without interfering each other in the noise-free case [12] [13]. The complexvalued data symbols D(k) of each user are multiplied with the corresponding spreading sequence C(k), resulting in the source vectors S(k). Up to Kmax=L of these source vectors are added to generate the spread vector S. This vector is modulated on the Nc=L subcarriers of an OFDM system, resulting in the time domain vector x by an IFFT transformation.

In this situation, we selected the number of subcarriers and spreading sequence length as the same value. This means, after spreading, each signal will be processed in one sub-carrier. Actually in the multi-user environment, at one time there will be many transmitted signal and one sub-carrier will process many signals come from differential users. These signals were even on the same sub-carrier, but they were orthogonal each other. That was the reason why the interference could be eliminated. With the idea applied in case of one user. We would like to introduce the completed model which was built for the whole systems under the multi-user environment in air traffic control. In ATC communications, still line of sight (LOS) condition for propagation was applied. This feature was specified by K factor at typical values:5, 10 and 15dB, which correspond to typical phases in any flight. This system model was designed with the intention to compare with OFDM-FDMA system. That was the reason why we also chosen 128 users, the same user bit rate, same modulation scheme and under the same Rice fading channel.

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Parameter name Value Properties of channel propagation Frequency band C band Carrier frequency f0 =5100 MHz System bandwidth B = 2.56 MHz Spread delay maximum max= 25 s Doppler spread maximum 300-400Hz Aircraft speed 1000km/h Ground antenna 1020dBi Rice factor K K=5,10,15dB Properties of channel propagation Spreading code Walsh Hadamard Sequence length 128 codes Modulation QPSK OFDM symbol duration TS = 50 s Guard interval time TG =10 s Total symbol duration TOFDM =60s Carrier bit rate 128kbit/s No. of carriers NC = 128 FFT length 128 Sub-carrier spacing fC =20KHz Modulation QPSK Doppler shift frequency 5000 Hz Guard interval length 8 (NC/16) Encoding/Decoding Convolutional Code Code rate R=1/2 and constraint length L=7 Viterbi decoding with soft detection

symbols. In the receiver side, opposite processing was carried out and get the final signal to the receivers. The following table showed a complete set of parameters used for computer simulation done for OFDM-CDMA system under the same condition with the OFDMFDMA system. The purpose is to do computer simulation for the two systems in the same condition of channel propagation and OFDM system properties.
Table 3 Parameters for OFDM-CDMA simulation

4.2 Simulation Parameters and Results Similar to section 3.2 that stands for the result of OFDM-FDMA channel performance simulation, this section also showed the simulation result for OFDMCDMA system based on the parameters which were set in Table 3. The result in this case will be done in the same way in section 3.2 (means to calculate Bit Error Rate-BER). In addition, all the parameters were set to make the both channel performance results comparable. The next figure showed the channel performance of OFDM-CDMA system with 128users and bit rate per user was 128kbit/s.

Fig. 7 OFDM-CDMA model for air traffic control

Signal from users were encoded by convolutional code with code rate R=1/2; constraint length L=7. Encoded signal was modulated by QPSK method and then spread by Walsh Hadamard sequence. Spread signals from all users were added to create a serial signal. This signal was divided for many sub-carriers. Through IFFT block, signal was processed by adding the guard time to ensure the overlap between OFDM

Fig. 8 Result of OFDM-CDMA channel performance

According to figure 8, at BER required for voice communication in ATC was 10-3 [3], an Eb/N0 was required at least 15dB (at Rice factor K=15dB). From now, we start with the system model and the evaluation of channel performance with OFDMCDMA system.

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5 CONCLUSION From the both figures 5 and 8, they showed that the curve lines in figure 5 were always below the curve lines in figure 8. This means that, the probability of Error from channel performance simulations in OFDM-FDMA system was lower than that in OFDMCDMA system. In reality, this difference could be understood by knowing that in OFDM-FDMA system, each user signal was processed separately by different frequencies. Meanwhile, in OFDM-CDMA system, all-user signals were processed in a sub-carrier bandwidth. The processing in the second system showed a possibility to cause interference between these signals. But in the first system, such interference will be avoided more perfectly. From this conclusion, combine with one of our result [14], this study showed the best channel performance in air traffic control communication, it was the combination of OFDM and FDMA. In addition, the special requirements and operation methods of ATC system made OFDM-FDMA system advantages compared to other systems. REFERENCES [1] Aeronautical Information Publication Japan, Civil Aviation Bureau - JCAB, 2004. [2] P. Delhaise, D. Desperier and B. Roturier, VDL2 Model 2 Physical layer validation report. EATMP Reference Number COM5-11-0501, EUROCONTROL, April 2001. [3] Manual on VHF Digital Link VDL Mode 3 (ICAO), Doc 9805 AN/763, 2002. [4] E. Haas, P. Hoher, H. Lang and U.-C. Fiebig, Future VHF Architecture Implementation Study, WP5000: Physical layer; Final Report. EUROCONTROL, June 1999. [5] Guan X., Ho D. T., Y. Tsuda, S. Shimamoto, J. Kitaori, Y. Nakatani, S. Kato, A Study on 5GHz Digital Data Communication for Air Traffic Control, Technical Report of IEICE, SANE 2004-35, July 2004. [6] Rappaport, T. S., 1996, Wireless Communications, Principles and Practice, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, ISBN 0-13-461088-1. [7] Ho D. T., Y. Tsuda, S. Shimamoto, J. Kitaori and S. Kato, The Next Generation Air to Ground Communication System Using for Air Traffic Control, 2005 IEEE/ACES International Conference on Wireless Communications and Applied Computational Electromagnetic, Catalog No. 05EX1049, ISBN: 0-78039068-7, Hawaii, U.S.A., Apr. 2005. [8] E. Haas, Aeronautical channel modeling, IEEE

Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol.51, No. 2, pp. 254-264, March 2002. [9] K. Fazel, S. Kaiser, 2003, Multi-Cairrer and Spread Spectrum Systems, Wiley, England, ISBN 0-470-84899-5 [10] L. Hanzo, M. Munster, B.J. Choi and T. Keller, OFDM and MC-CDMA for broadband multi-user communications, WLANs and Broadcasting, IEEE Press, 2003. [11] S.B. Weinstein and P.M. Ebert, Data Transmission by Frequency-Division Multiplexing Using the Discrete Fourier Transform, IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. COM-19, pp. 628-634, October 1971. [12] J.G. Proakis, Digital Communications, New York: McGraw-Hill, 3rd edition, 1995. [13] K. Fazel and L. Papke, On the performance of convolutionally-coded CDMA/OFDM for mobile communication system, in Proceedings IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC93), Yokohama, Japan, pp. 468-472, September 1993. [14] HO D. T., Y. TSUDA, S. SHIMAMOTO and J. KITAORI, C band and OFDM for air traffic control communications system, 32nd AIC International Conference, Halong, Vietnam, May 2005.

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