Multilateration – Executive Reference Guide
On 13/08/2010, in Bookshelf, by steve
Multilateration (often shortened to MLAT) is a surveillance technology that promises to satisfy surveillance requirements in most circumstances and it is seen as the best option in the transition to ADS-B based surveillance. It is no accident that organizations around the globe are turning to this technology, not least because it offers a solution that is much less expensive than conventional radars.
ERA Corporation, one of the premier suppliers of MLAT solutions, is behind a new guide developed to provide an easy-to-read reference for air traffic management, airport and airline professionals to answer the numerous questions they usually have about multilateration.
It is a cute, compact volume which sums up things pretty nicely and even hardened veterans may find it useful when they need a quick fact or other reference for presentations or general papers. For others, it is a must have item.
Download your copy here.
There is also a web site dedicated to the subject, which you can access here. The site has a few rough edges but those will be ironed out in time I am sure.
Learn a new abbreviation: NIEC! – NextGen Integration and Evaluation Capability
On 02/07/2010, in NextGen, by steve
All information seems to suggest that NIEC will play an important role in getting the FAA’s NextGen off the ground. Located at the William J. Hughes Technical Center (WJHTC), Atlantic City International Airport, New Jersey, the mission of the NexGen Integration and Evaluation Capability is to foster the exploration, evaluation and integration of NextGen enabling components within a rapid prototyping environment for concept validation and maturation.
That is quite a mouthful… Let’s see (using the relevant FAA fact sheet) what NIEC is all about.
The NIEC is the FAA’s research platform to explore, integrate, and evaluate NextGen concepts through simulation activities resulting in concept maturation and requirements definition. The NIEC Display Area (NDA) complements the unique NAS facilities and aviation based equipment located at the WJHTC.The NIEC leverages existing NAS operational systems and high fidelity, real-time simulation capabilities to create an integrated, flexible and reconfigurable environment that can be tailored for NextGen research as well as test and evaluation. The NDA can provide a futuristic NextGen gate to gate visualization environment with advanced data collection capabilities to support integration and evaluation of new technologies and concepts. The ability to provide a combined environment of legacy systems with future technologies and capabilities also enable the NIEC to support the transition to NextGen.
Click here to read the full article
FAA releases final rule on ADS-B
On 02/06/2010, in NextGen, by steve
It has been some time in coming, but finally here it is, the FAA’s final rule on ADS-B.
This final rule amends FAA regulations by adding equipage requirements and performance standards for Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS–B) Out avionics on aircraft operating in Classes A, B, and C airspace, as well as certain other specified classes of airspace within the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS). ADS-B Out broadcasts information about an aircraft through an onboard transmitter to a ground receiver. Use of ADS-B Out will move air traffic control from a radar-based system to a satellite-derived aircraft location system. This action facilitates the use of ADS–B for aircraft surveillance by FAA and Department of Defense (DOD) air traffic controllers to safely and efficiently accommodate aircraft operations and the expected increase in demand for air transportation. This rule also provides aircraft operators with a platform for additional flight applications and services.
The compliance date for this final rule is January 1, 2020.
You can download the full text of the rule here.
ADS-B and MLAT – No technology war
On 19/05/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
There will still be people who remember what a VHS cassette looked like and a few who remember the epic technology war between Betamax, System2000 and VHS. More recently, the Blu-Ray disc won in a similar battle in the consumer electronics field only to face quick extinction as the world moves towards on-line entertainment distribution.
In air traffic management such an epic battle was raging a few years ago between VDL Mode 2 and VDL Mode 4. They were vying for the privilege of becoming the prime technology for air/ground digital link, one of the most important enablers of the new air traffic management system. VDL Mode 2 won in the end mainly for practical reasons and certainly not because of technical superiority.
A cursory glance at the surveillance landscape shows that yet again there are two technologies aiming to replace expensive and cumbersome radar and one might conclude that a new technology war is in the offing.
The technologies concerned are Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and Multi-lateration (MLAT). Just to recap, ADS-B is a surveillance solution where
aircraft broadcast their GPS-derived position (ADS-B out) and the messages received on the ground are used to create air situation displays for air traffic controllers. When aircraft are able to receive the same messages (ADS-B in), these enable them to do airborne separation assurance, among other things.
Multi-lateration uses the replies from SSR transponders, timing their arrival at ground receiving antennas and calculating aircraft position from those time differences. WAM is Wide Area Multilateration, in effect the MLAT technology applied for surveillance in a given area.
The potential accuracy of both technologies is phenomenal and is far better than that of conventional radar. The icing on the cake is that the cost of implementation and ownership is a fraction of those outdated monsters.
Click here to read the full article
Aircraft based tools in the fight against runway incursions
On 06/04/2010, in Life around runways, by steve
Aircraft-based airport surface traffic indications and alerting systems
This is an edited version of the presentation made at the recent ESAVS 2010 conference by Doug Arbuckle of the FAA. Coauthors of the paper were David E. Gray of FAA, Peter Moertl of Mitre Corporation and Jim Duke of SAIC. You can download the original text of their paper here and the slides here.
Introduction
As discussed before, runway incursions and collisions is a major area of concern world-wide. There are on average more than two runway incursion events per day in Europe alone and the situation in the United States is similarly serious. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has on its most wanted list a system to “give immediate warnings of probable collisions/incursions directly to cockpit flight crews.”
In our previous two articles we covered the visual tools for preventing runway incursions (RWSL and FAROS) and the communications related causes of runway incursions. In this third article we will look into aircraft based airport surface traffic indications and alerting systems being developed in the US as a further line of defense against runway incursions.
The background
As you may be aware, in the US two different data links have been adopted for ADS-B: 1090 MHz Extended Squitter (1090 ES) and the 978 MHz Universal Access Transceiver (UAT). Given that the international community has agreed to the use of the 1090 ES link, most air transport and international business aircraft are expected to equip with this link; the UAT link is expected to be primarily used by general aviation aircraft whose operations are confined to the US. The US is implementing uplink services on both links. One such uplink broadcast service is Traffic Information Service-Broadcast (TIS-B). TIS-B derives traffic information from one or more ground-based surveillance sources and uplinks this traffic information to ADS-B-equipped aircraft, enabling them to receive position reports about non-ADS-B-equipped aircraft; this service supports the transition period to full ADS-B equipage in the NAS. ADS-R is another uplink broadcast service which rebroadcasts ADS-B messages received from aircraft on one link to nearby aircraft broadcasting on the other link, making it possible for all ADS-B-equipped aircraft to receive the information being transmitted on the other link.
Click here to read the full article
SWIM – proper terminology at last?
On 25/03/2010, in SWIM, by steve
During the SESAR definition phase we had to spend a lot of time explaining to the various authors that talking about System Wide Information Management (SWIM) using the old terminology is counter productive and will only make the documents more difficult to understand (and easier to misunderstand). Let me explain.
For some reason, most people thought that down-linking data from an aircraft was the thing to do and they used this term also in the SWIM context not realizing that down-linking is an action you undertake to achieve something and in concept level descriptions you need to specify first what you want to achieve and then talk about the “how” later. An aircraft in the air will publish its information so that those interested will learn about it and those looking for it can find it. Users who need the information will subscribe to it and hence will also get it. By using the term down-linking instead of publishing, writers did manage to create the impression that aircraft will be sending down loads of data to every imaginable destination… This is not the SWIM way of working and shows clearly why proper terminology is important if we want to see the correct picture.
Click here to read the full article
Performance Based Navigation (PBN) – Why the “N” should be an “O”
On 11/03/2010, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
The abbreviations game
In aviation we seem to be creating abbreviations at a rate that raises the specter of our grandchildren not having any usable combinations left any more. This remark from a well respected colleague of mine who used to work for UPS airlines does in fact indicate a few problems that go beyond the scarcity of available unique letter combinations and which, as we will see, affect our daily work in all kinds of unexpected ways.
This is not aviation CNS...
Consider the well known CNS formation which, we all know, stands for Communications, Navigation and Surveillance. Whoever came up with the abbreviation CNS probably had no idea how much damage their invention would cause in air traffic management by perpetuating the kind of silo mentality that keeps many organizations hopelessly divided and some experts retreating into their respective ivory towers.
If at least the inventors had the good sense of putting those letters into some kind of logical order, like history, which would have given us NCS… We did navigate first (as in trying to find our way by reading the names of train stations and flying along highways), then communicated, initially with lights and hand signals and later via radio and most recently we do surveillance also. Not that NCS would have been any better at driving the silo mentality from the face of the earth.
Of course in the old days there was some logic in looking at navigating and communicating as something totally different from each other. You trained for one or the other, aircraft carried separate navigators and radio operators and when radar came along, the wizards of that kit were a completely new breed yet again. It was only logical also that separate fiefdoms should grow up along the letters NCS with hardly any horizontal contact between them. That they should fiercely protect their respective domains was perfectly natural…
Click here to read the full article
KLM and Aeroflot take-off from taxi-ways
On 02/03/2010, in View from the left seat, by phil
Strange as it may seem one of the more difficult things that pilots have to deal with is finding their way around airports. Despite ICAO standardisation many obvious things like airport signage are not always the same at every airport, and even if they were, airport layouts will always differ. Surprisingly, navigating the aircraft down through the descent and arrival routes, then flying the approach and landing can often be easier than trying to navigate around the taxiways after vacating the runway. Equally, after all the hassle of getting the passengers on board, completing the checklists, pushing back on time, starting engines and leaving the ramp, finding ones’ way to the runway is not always as easy as it may seem. It really is extraordinary how difficult a seemingly simple task can be!
On the aircraft I used to fly, we had no map displays – only the basic fight instruments and paper charts. We followed our progress around the taxiways as carefully as we could following the charts. But even in good conditions it was surprisingly easy to become confused or to make a mistake. Usually this was resolved very quickly by reference to the marker boards and by checking compass headings, or by asking the tower for help. But sometimes one made a wrong turning, especially in poor visibility, or when everything was covered with snow, or at an unfamiliar airport.
Click here to read the full article
A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 3
On 24/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Pioneers to the rescue
In spite of the positive business case, airspace users were not exactly rushing to equip with air/ground digital link. Because of the slow down of traffic growth in the wake of 9/11, the expected ACARS problems did not materialize and the ATC frequency congestion was also pushed far into the future. In other industries, such a period of respite might have been used to prepare for the times when business recovery would once again make air//ground digital link essential. But that is not how aviation works. With the immediate threat receding and even some of the big carriers fighting for survival, enthusiasm for investing in things that would generate benefits only many years down the road cooled.
Of course for the planners of the ATM system this was a situation that spelled trouble for later. The frequency congestion problems were not a mirage even if for the time being those problems slipped into the future. The need to put together a comprehensive kit of capacity enablers had not become less important, only the urgency had changed somewhat. For LINK2000+ the big question was: how to jump start equipage? The question was not self serving at all. If Maastricht UAC controllers did not get digital link equipped aircraft to work with, it would be impossible to build and maintain proficiency and to shake down the system in real operational circumstances.
Click here to read the full article
Banging on an open door?
On 22/08/2009, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
The SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) has just announced that they are launching a specific initiative on flight tracking in oceanic and remote areas. The call for tender (OPTIMI) is meant to select contractor(s) for the performance of a study and flight demonstrations – co-funded for a maximum amount of € 360.000 -aimed at demonstrating the feasibility to implement oceanic tracking services in the Atlantic at a reasonable cost and within a limited timeframe (2010).
The SESR JU was tasked to analyse the issue and provide recommendations on the way forward in response to the apparent lack of appropriate tracking over remote areas that came to light following the recent tragic accident over the South-Atlantic.
As I read this news in my office, one of the several computer screens was focused on the Pacific Ocean, showing the Western Coast of the US and the Hawaii Islands. All traffic was clearly visible and by pointing on any of the blips, I could immediately bring up corresponding, real-time flight data, including heading, level, speed, departure and destination aerodrome and the filed track was also presented.
Scrolling the map to the North Atlantic, as I briefly looked at traffic in and out of Paris, two questions came to mind.
Click here to read the full article
Performance Based Navigation Workshop, Budapest 17-18 November 2009
On 10/08/2009, in Events, by steve
BluSky Services is organising a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) workshop, to be held in Budapest, Hungary on 17-18 November 2009. The event will be hosted by HungaroControl and will take place at their premises.
Participation in the workshop is free.
As is well known, both IATA and CANSO have expressed their support for PBN and this important evolutionary step is also part of ICAO’s ATM strategy.
Participants at the workshop will learn about the ICAO PBN concept and how it relates to Performance Based Navigation (RNP) and technologies like ADS-B, MLAT and GNSS landing systems.
The list of presenters include ICAO, IATA, Honeywell, ERA Corporation, APAC and ZEBRAFISH International.
For more details, the Agenda and registration, check out http://pbn.bluskyservices.com
To learn more about BluSky Services, go to www.bluskyservices.com
