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ACTS broadband aeronautical terminalThis paper discusses the design of, and experiments with, the ACTS Broadband Aeronautical Terminal. As part of the ongoing effort to investigate commercial applications of ACTS technologies, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and various industry/government partners are developing a broadband mobile terminal for aeronautical applications. The ACTS Broadband Aeronautical Terminal is designed to explore the use of K/Ka-band for high data rate aeronautical satellite communications. Currently available commercial aeronautical satellite communications systems are only capable of achieving data rates on the order of tens of kilobits per second. The broadband terminal used in conjunction with the ACTS mechanically steerable antenna, can achieve data rates of 384 kilobits per second, while use of an ACTS spot beam antenna with this terminal will allow up to T1 data rates (1.544 megabits per second). The aeronautical terminal will be utilized to test a variety of applications that require a high data rate communications link. The use of the K/Ka-band for wideband aeronautical communications has the advantages of spectrum availability and smaller antennas, while eliminating the one major drawback of this frequency band, rain attenuation, by flying above the clouds the majority of the time.
Document ID
19960022500
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Agan, M. J.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA United States)
Densmore, A. C.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA United States)
Date Acquired
August 17, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1995
Publication Information
Publication: Proceedings of the Fourth International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1995)
Subject Category
Communications And Radar
Accession Number
96N25454
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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