Global Navigation Satellite Systems

Being actively involved in Aerospace Programs for more than 2 decades, Accord has garnered expertise in various domains in the industry. This provides us a good launchpad to contribute to various projects in these domains or in allied areas. Applying Cross-Project and Cross-Domain learnings and Constantly Improving in the work that we accomplish results in beneficial Value Additions to our Customers. Described in this webpage are some of the prominent areas that we have good experience in.

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We specialize in the areas listed below, our teams are all well trained to cater to any requirement in these areas or in related domains:

  • GNSS Solutions
  • ADS-B
  • ACARS/CPDLC
  • Display Units
  • AID (Data Concentrators)
  • Data Loaders
  • Advance Warning Systems
  • Avionics Real-Time Operating System
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GNSS Solutions

Accord is a Centre of Excellence for GNSS Technology with more than 25 years experience in R&D and product development holding multiple US patents. Accord has several experts with PhDs in GNSS areas from top Canadian and US universities.

Accord has indigenously designed, developed, and manufactured highly reliable Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Receivers and Navigation Systems suitable for Aircraft platforms, Artilleries and Tanks, Armored vehicles, Hand-held receivers, Precision-guided munitions, UAVs, and many other embedded platforms.

Our GNSS receivers have passed rigorous verification against Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Aerospace & Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP) guidelines and standards. Accord has developed, certified and manufactured multiple variants of GNSS receivers compliant to FAA TSO-C145c Class Beta 3 GPS-SBAS receiver with design assurance to DAL B/C. Since 2007, more than 10,000 units have been delivered for service in General Aviation, Business Jets, Rotorcrafts, UAV and other platforms.

Our GNSS solutions are capable of Failure-free Operation under the most adverse conditions while delivering Superior Performance. Automatic handling of GPS-Week Rollovers is built-in in all the receivers.

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ADS-B

ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) is an allied application where our GNSS Solutions are used. We have over a decade of R&D experience in this area. Our ADS-B product development experience covers ADS-B Transmitters, Receivers and Transceivers. Our expertise encompasses the older 1090 MHz Extended Squitter and the New Gen UAT (Universal Access Transceiver - 978 MHz).

Our products have undergone certification by the FAA and as many as 7000 units have been successfully delivered for service in the Business Jets and GA Segment in the USA.

Proven expertise in implementing Traffic Processing Algorithms. ADS-B application includes data output in a variety of formats - GDL-90 traffic, ARINC-735B STIF and DTIF, GDL-90 Passthrough, Raw DF-17/18, Asterix CAT-21 format Versions 0.23/2.1.

Accord's experience also extends to FIS-B based Weather Data Processing and Ground Station based TIS-B

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ACARS/CPDLC

ACARS is a digital data link Communication System between the aircraft and ATC/Airline Centers for the transmission of text based messages. This technology which has been widely in use since the late 1970s has seen many improvements over the years with contributions from big OEMs like Airbus and Boeing. ATN B1 and FANS 1/A+ are the modern changes in the data link domain.

Accord has a good System Level understanding of the domain and has participated in System Verification projects. Our teams posses a good working knowledge of uplinks and downlinks, the data formats and the wide range of possible messages that are transmitted.

Accord has also a good knowledge of ADS-C which is necessary for FANS Oceanic.

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Display Unit Technology

Accord has worked on several projects involving Display units. Designing and Developing a Control and Display Unit for the Mission Computer and Navigation Display on Rotorcraft platform amounted to considerable work done by Accord in this area. Additionally, the V&V of such CDU on Airbus Platforms was also take up by Accord and completed successfully.

Accord has developed an in-house Graphics Library (AGL - Accord Graphics Library) that implements the APIs required for rendering 2D and 3D graphics for the Safety Critical profile. The AGL has been used in several display related projects. The AGL has been ported on various different Hardware Platforms.

System Testing of SmartDeck, a "glass cockpit" fully integrated cockpit system for retrofit assemblies was performed by Accord. The display incorporated Navigation, Weather, Traffic and Terrain Avoidance, Communication, Flight Controls, Engine Monitoring and Enhanced Vision into one cockpit system.

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Aircraft Interface Devices (AID)/Data Concentrators/Data Acquisition Units

Accord's involvement in Data Concentrators and Acquisition Units dates back to a decade. There was Full Life Cycle Participation by Accord in the Design, Development and Verification of a Data Concentrator on Airbus Platforms. This was a DAL A Project and was executed over a period of nearly 10 years. With this Accord acquired good knowhow on the Data Concentrator domain.

More recently, Accord was involved in full life cycle activity on DAUs (Data Acquisition Units) on two different rotor craft platforms. Reusability of artifacts and Acquired Skills resulted in fast paced and efficient Project Progress.

Accord has over 90 person years of experience in this domain.

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Data Loading Framework

Present within Accord is design and development experience for ARINC 615A compliant data loader used to load ARINC 665 compliant software parts on target LRUs via Ethernet. Support was added on PowerPC Platform LRU to support A615A dataloading and also for the download of Maintenance Data.

The design used the TFTP Application Layer Protocol with a lower level UDP-IP stack. This data loader was implemented with a modular architecture so that most functionality can be re-used as a library package.

On a recent project, an upgrade was performed to an existing Dataloading interface to change the underlying FAT-16 File System to a FAT-32 File System.

Accord has extensive experience working on different layers of the Dataloading Framework. Dataloading onto Flash Memories and Factory Loading of LRUs have also been taken up by Accord with good success.

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Early Warning Systems

An Early Warning System (EWS) was developed by Accord for a Rotorcraft platform that functioned as a Pilot Aid to issue Warnings when maneuvers might de-stabilize Rotorcraft control subsequently resulting in a Crash.

To implement this system, several analog and digital inputs were monitored in conjunction and aircraft stability was determined.

The Product was taken through Full Airborne Certification compliant to CEMILAC standards. The product is currently flying on a good number of rotorcraft. The project underlines Accord's ability to work on Safety Critical Applications.

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ARINC 653 based Real Time Operating System

Accord has developed its own RTOS called OASYS that is used in several embedded applications on Airborne Systems. The RTOS is A653 compliant and is ported on multiple platforms including ARM and PowerPC.

OASYS implements the complete ARINC 653 Part 1 Basic Services and supports Space & Time Partitioning concepts. It is used as the Operating System for an airborne early warning system and Control & Display unit for rotorcraft. These systems have gone through rigorous DO-178B compliance checks and is certified by CEMILAC for use in Airborne Systems.

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