The air traffic control department in China is encountering a great pressure caused by the increase of air traffic flow. ACARS becomes unable to satisfy the need of aviation communications, so a new data link communication technology is required. In this paper, a data link communication technolog3 is proposed according to the characteristic of Chinese civil aviation. Related technique issues are discussed. And relative research and future research plans of the CNS/ATM lab are introduced. Keywords. VHF data link, ACARS, VDL Mode 2, air traffic flow . 0-7803-9586-7