How does the Wireless GroundLink system work?
D.1. Teledyne’s WGL uses a different approach for transporting data. Rather than installing dedicated data links between the aircraft and the gate, the Wireless GroundLink system utilizes two highly ubiquitous communication platforms: the public GSM cellular infrastructure, and the Internet. Data collected during the flight is compressed to reduce transfer time and cost, then it’s encrypted for security, and prepared for transmission. After landing, the WGL unit opens one or more (up to eight) communication channels over the local GSM cellular network. The collected, compressed, and encrypted file is divided into data packets and transmitted over the air. While the data is in transit over the air from the WGL to the local cell tower, the data packets are encrypted further by the GSM network. Once received at the cell tower the additional GSM encryption that took place over the air is removed. At the GSM cellular network switching center, the packets are sent through the Internet and ro
