Simultaneous Optimization of Airway and Sector Design for Air Traffic Management

Abstract

Dynamic airspace sectorization is an evolving concept of balancing the workload of air traffic controllers by changing the area of airspace under the controller based on the traffic demands. Proposed methodologies in literature typically consider fixed air traffic routes. However, routing can be an alternative effective handle for balancing the controller workloads, especially when making pretactical decisions where the redesigning of sectors has limited flexibility. In this paper, an optimization framework called simultaneous optimization of airway and airspace is proposed for handling changing the availability of airspace due to weather disturbances or airspace restrictions. A scenario such as this involves the rerouting of air traffic, which creates an unexpected imbalance in workloads. The framework overcomes this imbalance by finding a reroute and resectorization strategy that minimize workload imbalance across sectors and maximize the sector similarity with original sector shapes. An experimental study is performed to compare this methodology with a sequential design approach; the concurrent consideration of the effect of sector redesign and flow rerouting on the design objectives yields better and more optimal solutions. Furthermore, the application of the proposed framework on the Singapore flight information region with historical flight data reflects similar conclusions.