Your airplane will have to be equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) gear by 2020 to have full access to the National Airspace System. According to Flight International, Nicholas Sabatini, the FAA’s associate director for flight safety, told an agency workshop last week that the FAA will soon issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that will make ADS-B a requirement to “assure access to certain airspace.” It’s not clear exactly which class, or classes, of airspace will require ADS-B or whether a new airspace designation is in the works. FAA officials have been publicly touting the benefits of the system for a couple of years, and it’s believed to be the pivotal technology for modernization of air traffic control. ADS-B was pioneered in the Alaska Capstone program. It uses an onboard datalink transceiver to report position and altitude to ground stations and to other aircraft that have ADS-B gear onboard. It can also be used to upload data, such as weather information. The catch, however, is that for the purpose of maintaining separation, all aircraft have to be equipped with the gear. The first approved ADS-B units for GA cost about $8,000 but industry sources say that as they catch on, the price will drop significantly to about the same price as a typical transponder.
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Your airplane will have to be equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) gear by 2020 to have full access to the National Airspace System. 
