scope:

INTRODUCTION

The aeronautical mobile airport communications system (AeroMACS) is an ICAO standardized data link system aiming to support the communication exchanges dealing with the safety and regularity of flight operations in the aerodrome (airport) environment.

AeroMACS is based on IEEE 802.161 and is a modern (fourth generation (4G)) mobile wireless communication system providing broadband connectivity on the airport surface. AeroMACS can support the integration of the safety and regularity of flight communications of aircraft operators, air navigation services providers (ANSPs) and airport authorities by providing high bandwidth and prioritized communication exchanges over a common infrastructure dedicated to critical communication exchanges in the airport environment.

AeroMACS can operate in the 5 030 to 5 150 MHz band under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) allocation for the aeronautical mobile (route) service (AM(R)S) which affords protection from interference from unauthorized users of the band.

This document complements the AeroMACS-related Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) in Annex 10 - Aeronautical Telecommunications, Volume III - Communication Systems, and aims to provide guidance to regulators, manufacturers and system integrators for the deployment and configuration of AeroMACS. The scope of the manual includes information on aspects such as the concept of operations, architecture specifications and security, and guidelines on siting, frequency allocations and interfacing to AeroMACS components.

Chapter 1 of this document contains an overview, background information and key features of AeroMACS.

Chapter 2 contains the guidance material on issues typically arising in AeroMACS deployments, such as applicable services, media access configuration, base station (BS) siting, frequency allocation, architecture and interfaces to network layers.

Chapter 3 describes the technical specifications that are required to achieve compliance with the AeroMACS-related SARPs in Chapter 7 of Annex 10, Volume III, and global interoperability.