Abstract: A method for designing an aircraft to ground communications system identifies a plurality of unique functions in the communications system. The components, hardware and software, necessary to implement each of the plurality of unique functions are isolated such that the components for implementing a specific function are partitioned to allow independent testing and certification of the hardware and software components for each unique function.

Abstract: A method for establishing simultaneous communications between nodes having neighboring nodes in a multi-hop network of transceiver nodes arranged in neighborhoods includes determining the quality of communication links between the nodes of a neighborhood and adjacent neighborhoods. A table of quality data is stored representing the quality of communication links between nodes of the neighborhood for each node. A set of performance criterion of desired service in the neighborhood is stored. A set of possible link assignments between ones of the nodes in the neighborhood is generated from the table of quality data based upon a maximized performance criterion of desired service in the neighborhood. Link assignments are then allocated between nodes of the neighborhood based upon the desired performance criterion.