Towards Systematic Air Traffic Management in a Regular Lattice

Abstract

[Abstract] A regular lattice combines two ideas: a repeating (or regular) airspace structure and layers of parallel tracks. A repeatin g or regular airspace structure has several advantages over an irregular structure. The skills or methods used to control traffic in one part of the structure are applicable throughout the structure. Regularity gives rise to multiple routes between two points wi th similar distances flown in each direction and at each flight level. Flow management can select routes which distribute traffic over a region. The same mechanism could be used to choose routes which avoid reserved areas. Properties which apply to an element of the airspace apply wherever that element is repeated, so that reasoning about a smal l region of the airspace can immediately be scaled up to apply to a much larger region. Layers of parallel tracks eliminate crossing conflicts between aircraft which are flying straight and level. Together with measures to preserve the stability of traffic flows (sufficient spacing, speed regulation, or ASAS sequencing procedures), traffic may be separated into two easily identifiable populations: a population of cruising aircraft, which require low controller monitoring per aircraft, since there are no crossing conflicts between cruising aircraft, and a population of aircraft in transiti on to or from the stable state, which require greater monitoring. A regular lattice allow s a fine-grained decomposition into sectors. This would allow air traffic control to be performed by a greater number of controllers, so increasing the capacity of the syst em. Results from fast-time simulations are reported.