ARINC: More Than 2,200 Aircrafts Use VDL Mode 2 Flight Communications

July 16, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

The count includes aircraft that logged onto the ARINC worldwide VDL Mode 2 network since 2002 - more than 2,000 commercial planes from 40 airlines and about 200 military aircraft.

VDL Mode 2 usage has risen since 2004, with the majority of the logons being ARINC customers.

"We are now handling 3 million VDL messages a month, and 90% of the growth has taken place in just three years," said Steve Means, vice president, ARINC Aviation Solutions. "We're logging 80 new tail numbers a month as well."

VDL Mode 2 was designed to provide expanded radio channel capacity, which is needed for aeronautical operational control (AOC) and air traffic control (ATC) data link services in much of the world’s airspace.

ARINC invested in VDL Mode 2 network infrastructure on four continents to provide a migration path forward from the industry standard Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) data link, which it introduced in 1978. Today, most commercial aircraft are delivered with VDL avionics as standard equipment.

The expanded bandwidth of VDL Mode 2, which is ten times that of the ACARS, according to ARINC, enables the delivery of a range of flight information and AOC applications for airlines, including graphical weather, electronic charts and engine/aircraft health monitoring programs. VDL Mode 2 also supports traditional ACARS data link applications via a hybrid service known as AOA, or ACARS Over AVLC (aviation VHF link control).

VDL Mode 2 supports controller-pilot data link communications (CPDLC) via the ARINC Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN). ARINC experienced with CPDLC, initially in 2002 for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) early CPDLC Build 1 program, and since 2004 for Europe's Link 2000+ program, which implements CPDLC for ATC at Eurocontrol's Maastricht Upper Air Center, which is said to control the world's busiest airspace.

"The rapidly expanding base of VDL-equipped aircraft, along with ARINC's complete domestic enroute VDL coverage, puts the U.S. industry in a good position to support the FAA's DataCom project enabling CPDLC starting in 2012 - a cornerstone of the FAA's NextGen vision," said Means.

The ARINC GLOBALink air-ground network supports airline data link communications worldwide with more than 1,200 VHF, VDL Mode 2, and high-frequency (HF) ground stations, as well as satellite services over Inmarsat and Iridium.

Source: ARINC Inc.