In airspace where traffic leaves continental areas entering oceanic ones, there is a dramatic decrease of capacity. This is because the usual Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) ground-based infrastructure existing on the continental area (radars, receivers, stations, etc.), disappears or diminishes over oceanic area. This leads to higher separation requirements between aircraft over oceanic airspace compared to continental airspace to maintain the same safety levels.

This solution studies the feasibility of space-based very high frequency (VHF) voice and data communications over oceanic airspace. VHF communications is a mature reliable technology already in use, but its coverage is limited to line of sight from terrestrial stations. In oceanic, remote, and polar (ORP) airspaces there is a lack of VHF communication infrastructure, relying on long range High Frequency radios and satellite communication (SATCOM). This solution will enable the extension of reliable VHF communications to areas where currently no VHF is available. It provides low earth orbit (LEO) satellite-based VHF communications (both voice and data) over ORP areas, with a performance that is better than currently available ORP communication technologies.

Although new elements are needed to achieve the goal of this solution (satellites and ground devices to be able to link with them), importantly they will not introduce changes to the operational procedure of both pilots and controllers, as they will only have to select the newly allocated VHF frequencies available at those OPR areas.
The demonstration of this solution will provide input for the submission of a regulatory change to standardisation bodies. These standardisation bodies will use the project results and work on satellite-based VHF concept providing their conclusions as evidence for the International Telecommunications Union at the World Radiocommunication Conferences (ITU WRC), where the new frequency allocation, technical regulations and operational procedures will be discussed.

BENEFITS
• Additional resilience to weather and wind conditions
• Extension of coverage of reliable VHF communications to remote areas through the deployment of satellite-based systems.
• Quality-of-service improvement for space-based voice and data communication compared to performances provided by currently in-use technologies in remote areas.