AeroMACS: A New Perspective for Mobile Airport Communications and Services

Broadband wireless technologies are becoming more and more pervasive in several fields of application to supply new services and to satisfy operational constraints. Among them, this paper deals with the use of WiMAX technology in future air traffic management system. This technology is expected to increase the safety and to allow the exchange of large volume of data among heterogeneous users, including aircrafts. In particular, Eurocontrol and ICAO identified a WiMAX based technology for communications on the airport surface, named Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communication System (AeroMACS). The scope of this paper is to provide an overview of AeroMACS, with a description of its main features, requirements, PHY and MAC profiles choices and related network architecture. Finally, the paper highlights some open issues for AeroMACS that represent critical aspects and require, up to now, additional investigations.