As the aviation community integrates Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS), one of the technical issues that must be handled concerns the Command and Control (C2) Link from the remote pilot Control Station (CS) to the UAS. The C2 Link can switch between carriers during the UAS mission. For example, the link may switch from a terrestrial network to a satellite-based communications network (SATCOM), or from one terrestrial network to another. Requirements for interworking and security of the C2 Link switchover between two point-to-point Line of Sight (LOS) links, switchover between LOS terrestrial C2 Link and a SATCOM network, and switchover between Radio Line of Sight (RLOS) terrestrial C2 Link and a commercial terrestrial cellular network have been developed, and this paper discusses the validation of those requirements.
The Honeywell Mosaic Team successfully completed all DO-377A UAS C2 MASPS Internetworking and security requirements validation testing today. Tests were conducted per formal validation test procedures that the team developed and were approved by FAA. These are the same procedures incorporated into the MASPS as formal validation procedures.
Tests were executed over live SATCOM network through the Honeywell Ottawa Lab SATCOM test bench and NYC INMARSAT Gateway. Tests also included one emulated 4G LTE cellular link and two independent C-Band CNPC links using Honeywell prototype CNPC radios per DO-362A MOPS. The Honeywell test lab and the C2 Link System software developed by MOSAIC performed flawlessly.
There were no additional requirement validation defects. Testing also noted a few system performance shortfalls, which are not requirement defects. Rather, they can be managed through proper implementation and operation. These performance items will be summarized in the final report.
