Characterization of the terminal area of standard arrival routes using the queueing system

Abstract

The article solves the problem of determining the probabilistic characteristics of the STARs legs which specify a sequencing technique of “point merge” and “trombone”-type considering the intensity of the air traffic flow and the formation of a queue. This task is closely related to the airspace efficiency, as well as to the limit values of flight safety performance. An application of the queueing system makes it possible to optimize the elements of the airspace structure on an objective basis, and in the event of considering the inverse problem to establish limit values for the air traffic flow characteristics. The characteristics of the “point merge” and “trombone”-type schemes become of prime importance in the air hub, where several airfields function of each other in a relatively small volume of airspace – as it happens in the Moscow air hub, so it is the given hub that is taken as a practical example. In this problem the basic model is the queueing system with limited-size queues where the optimal number of service channels in a stationary air traffic flow is determined in a probabilistic way. The stated model encapsulates the essence of the “trombone” or “point merge”-type scheme, where the number of service channels corresponds to the number of flight levels on the arc of the “point merge” or on the horizontal flight segment of the “trombone”. Now, the number of such flight levels, as a rule, corresponds to the number of standard arrival routes involved in the formation of a “trombone” (“point merge”), which, from a practical point of view, is excessive. The task of using the mathematical apparatus of the queueing system is to determine the optimal number of flight levels – service channels of the model while establishing the required probability of its failure. As a mathematical model of the queueing system, the “trombone”-type scheme is used, and in the mentioned above example, the structure of the airspace is presented using the “point merge”-type scheme as a regulator of the aircraft sequence for landing. All the computations are performed for the certain intensity of air traffic flow for a specified airfield, considering the full-scale application of continuous descent operations and continuous climb operations (CDO, CCO). As a result of solving the problem, the value for the optimal number of flight levels on the “trombone” or “point merge”-type scheme was obtained, and the dependence of the number of service channels (flight levels on the “trombone” or “point merge”) on the value of the given probability of the queueing system failure was shown. The proposed approach to the airspace structure formation has prospects for implementation.