Primary research areas: this proposal will address the armd strategic thrust #1, "safe, efficient growth in global operations." IT will also have direct impacts to both strategic thrusts #5 and #6, as…

The University of South Carolina (USC) was awarded a $4,854,322.67 cooperative agreement from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for research related to aeronautical communications, networking, and air traffic management (ATM). This contract supports NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) strategic thrusts to enable safe and efficient growth in global aviation operations. The research focuses on leveraging multi-band and multi-mode communications, including millimeter wave wireless, to enhance ATM capacity, flexibility, safety, and resilience. Key objectives include analyzing aviation spectrum usage, developing simulation tools, and characterizing performance of advanced networking and detection capabilities. This work will help lay the foundation for truly revolutionary air traffic management approaches. The contract does not have a set-aside designation, reflecting USC's status as a large educational institution with significant federal research and development expertise.

Primary research areas: this proposal will address the armd strategic thrust #1, "safe, efficient growth in global operations." IT will also have direct impacts to both strategic thrusts #5 and #6, as we will illustrate in the step-a proposal. The research area is aeronautical communications, networking, and air traffic management (ATM), including aspects of navigation and surveillance, for both manned and unmanned aircraft. Some of the outcomes are beyond nextgen but our foundational work will surmount key technical challenges within the required 5-year period. Outcomes of this communications and networking research will enable globally autonomous ATM, and enhance its flexibility, safety, capacity, and resilience. Example outcomes include analysis and design of adaptive high-capacity multi-band links, planned and opportunistic multi-mode connectivity, both of which will enhance ATM capacity and efficiency, and millimeter wave wireless for the universally-connected and secure airport ("airport of things"), all linked via proactive navigation and surveillance. The objectives are to: 1) characterize capacity and coverage of existing aviation bands (and adjacent bands) and technologies, identify shortcomings and near term improvements, and assess growth potential; 2) build analysis and simulation software toolboxes to enable assessment of link & network performance (PHY, DLL, and network reliability, latency, etc.); 3) characterize capacity & efficiency potential of use of non-aviation "nodes," employing both aviation and non-aviation spectrum; 4) develop inter-band networking conops & evaluate ATM impacts/opportunities for improved performance (safety, scheduling, etc.); 5) characterize capacity and efficiency gains of widespread millimeter wave wireless airport subnetworks; measure and model example channels and validate prototype system and airport network operation; 6) develop jammer and unauthorized UAS detection/localization techniques, and adaptive communication/navigation/surveillance tactics for safe and effectual ATM; 7) develop small UAS testbed to validate multi-band and multi-mode networking performance; 8) develop a realistic and comprehensive ATM simulation testbed to assess gains of multi-band/multi-mode networking in terms of capacity, multi-vehicle cooperation, etc. 9) assess performance of truly revolutionary technologies (e.g., optical wireless, a vast "aeropedia" aboard every aircraft, free and abundant energy sources, etc.) in terms of gains in capacity, flexibility, safety, etc.