User's Manual

UL-801 Installation Manual
Page 2
23-20-06 15 December 2011
The communication links used to exchange data are Very High Frequency (VHF), including:
• The legacy Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting system (ACARS)
• Next-generation VHF digital link (VDL) Mode 2
• Satellite Communications (SatCom).
The UL-801 is designed to be interfaced with, and controlled through, a variety of Universal
Avionics Control Display Units (CDUs) or Multi-function Control Display Units (MCDUs)
that are integrated with a Universal Avionics Flight Management System (FMS). The
UL-801 can also be controlled via an MCDU with ARINC 702 FMS or 743/743A GNSS.
Uplink text messages are displayed on Universal’s CDU/MCDUs. Color graphical weather
maps may be displayed on Universal’s CDUs, MCDUs, Multi-Function Displays (MFD),
and Flat Panel Integrated Display (FPID), as well as UASC’s EFI-890Rs.
High resolution graphics ports support up to two high-resolution display devices, such as a
capable EFI-890R ND and/or an MFD-640.
UniLink is capable of simultaneously transmitting and or receiving messages on more than
one transmission link at a time (VHF and SatCom, which includes SAT and TEL). Messages
may be generated on the ground and sent to the aircraft (uplink message) or messages can be
generated from the aircraft and sent to the ground (downlink message). Downlink messages
are generated by the crew, internally by the UniLink, or any one of the peripheral units may
generate a message to be passed on to the UniLink for transmission. When UniLink receives
an uplink message, it determines if the message should be processed internally or be sent to a
peripheral device specified by a message sub-label. Messages can be predefined as ARINC
Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) messages or UniLink
supported messages, such as specialized weather requests or graphical weather maps, or text
messages routed to a printer.
The communications link connects the UniLink-equipped aircraft directly to a DSP. This
provides a general purpose communications link between the aircraft and ground computers
utilizing such first party service providers such as ARINC, SITA, and/or AVICOM. It is the
user’s decision which DSP is selected. The decision may also be based on the second-party
DSP to which the user subscribes.
In order to aid in potential incident/accident investigations, UniLink supports the
transmission of datalink records to an ARINC Characteristic 757 Cockpit Voice Recorder
(CVR) and a Cockpit Voice Flight Data Recorder (CVFDR).
A. General
The UL-801 provides two-way datalink for air-to-ground communications which allows
communication with a DSP for a variety of available services. In order for UniLink to be
utilized, a DSP subscription is required. Each DSP may not support all UniLink services.
Contact your DSP for a list of supported services. A list of available UniLink DSPs can be
found in Appendix 3.
UniLink communicates via one or more communication systems: VHF and/or Satellite
SatCom systems. It supports an RS-232 serial or ARINC 429 (740, 744/744A) cockpit
printer to print various uplink messages, such as a textual weather report. The UniLink also
connects to a DTU/SSDTU to allow future software and database updates.