Alternative surveillance technologies for innovative solutions in air traffic management: the ASTONISH project

Kurzfassung

The aviation industry relies heavily on various surveillance methods to ensure the safety and efficiency of air transport. Radar-based primary surveillance mechanisms, while generally reliable, do not provide full coverage and are increasingly being considered for decommissioning in favour of lower-cost secondary surveillance systems. However, well-established secondary surveillance systems, such as ADS-B, face challenges, including radio spectrum congestion and GNSS interference, particularly in conflicting areas or high traffic areas. The goal of the SESAR Exploratory Research project "Alternate Surveillance Technologies fOr iNnovatIve Solutions" (ASTONISH)[1] is to develop innovative alternative surveillance applications for ATM/ANS (Air Traffic Management/Air Navigation Services) and airport operations, increasing the future ATM/ANS system performance and safety and allowing for an increased level of automation and connectivity. In particular, we identified three critical solutions: · ground-based systems for enroute and terminal areas surveillance, · aircraft-based alternative surveillance (A-SUR) technology, and · airport and aircraft-based surveillance sensing systems for ground operations Ground-based systems for enroute and terminal areas surveillance Primary surveillance radars are currently being phased out in many countries. The Minimum Operational Network design and criteria developed by CNS Programme Manager identifies the need to rationalize primary radars. Moreover, the congestion of the 1030 MHz and 1090 MHz frequency bands used by SSR, ADS-B, and TCAS, as well as possible failures of the airborne transponders makes primary and secondary surveillance services subject to outage and unavailability. To address this issue, we consider two ground-based non-cooperative surveillance alternatives: 1) the future aeronautical digital communication infrastructure L-Band Digital Aeronautical Communication System (LDACS) by employing its transmitters as illuminators of opportunity to realize a multistatic passive radar for terminal manoeuvring area (TMA) and en-route surveillance (referred to as LDACS-SUR), and 2) a distributed active radar system for TMA surveillance. The implementation of these technologies will improve safety in sectors not covered by primary and secondary surveillance services, while increasing capacity in areas where such surveillance is already in place and providing a robust backup solution for non-cooperative scenarios. The use of LDACS can be the first example of a technology enabling integrated CNS. Aircraft-based alternative surveillance (A-SUR) technology ASTONISH will exploit communication infrastructures for downlinking the aircraft surveillance data to provide backup surveillance services, significantly improving the reliability of ATM systems. The avionics architectures for alternate surveillance seeks to explore and develop a solution to complement ADS-B by downlinking surveillance data over any available aircraft communications links, such as SATCOM, LDACS, VDLM2, Cellular thereby supplementing existing surveillance infrastructure. This approach builds upon the vision of the Hyperconnected ATM concept[2] being developed within the FCDI project, but here with a specific focus on surveillance data. Once received on the ground the data would then be aggregated and made available in standard formats, ensuring compatibility and ease integration with the existing ATC networks. This approach is essential to supporting the continued growth of air traffic while maintaining the highest safety standards, and it can also mitigate security concerns in the existing ADS-B messages, by allowing encrypted communication links to support integrity checking of received ADS-B data. Airport and aircraft-based surveillance sensing systems for ground operations In the last years, there has been a rise in airport incidents involving aircraft collisions or near-collisions with other aircraft, airport infrastructures, ground vehicles or other objects. With the aim to investigate solutions that can improve aircraft safety on ground, ASTONISH refers to the sensing technologies already successfully introduced in the last decade in the automotive industry to improve car perception capabilities and safety, such as cameras, radars and lidars. These technologies drastically improve drivers' situational awareness, by detecting and localising obstacles in the surroundings of the vehicle that might potentially represent a danger or that might be hidden due to poor visibility conditions. ASTONISH will carry out a systematic and thorough study of promising non-cooperative sensing technologies deployable on ground and onboard aircraft to enhance surveillance systems capabilities, improve pilots and ATCOs situational awareness, and ultimately achieve higher levels of safety during surface operations. References [1] "Alternate Surveillance Technologies fOr iNnovatIve Solutions (ASTONISH)", SESAR project 101167383 - ASTONISH, https://www.sesarju.eu/projects/ASTONISH [July 2024] [2] "Future Connectivity and Digital Infrastructure (FCDI)", SESAR project 101114729, https://www.sesarju.eu/projects/FCDI [retrieved November 2024]