Editorial

摘要

Forecasted air traffic growth is being seriously hampered by frequency channel congestion in the current Air Traffic Management (ATM) communications infrastructure using the VHF frequency band. This underpins the need to alleviate saturation by means of additional capacity in congested regions on the one side, and the need for improved operational efficiency in oceanic and remote airspace on the other side. Satellite communications is considered in this context as a potentially valuable resource and shall be hence regarded at as an integral part of the foreseen long term solution providing global ATM service availability [1].