RELATIONSHIP OF MAXIMUM MANAGEABLE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL COMPLEXITY AND SECTOR CAPACITY

摘要

In today's U.S. airspace operations, each sector has a capacity threshold in the form of the maximum number of aircraft. This threshold, called as Monitor Alert Parameter, serves as a controller workload limit indicator for each sector. Studies have shown that a number of factors, beyond a simple aircraft count, affect sector complexity and controller workload. This study examined if a sector's capacity could be based on a measure of maximum manageable complexity rather than a simple aircraft count. The results of a human-in-the-loop simulation study were used to identify the maximum acceptable complexity and its relationship with sector capacity. Aircraft in the study continued to enter the simulated sector until the controller participant terminated the simulation due to excessive workload, thus providing a sector complexity threshold. The number of aircraft at that complexity threshold varied, which provided a range of capacity values. In most cases, the controllers were able to handle more than the current instantaneous capacity limit. However, at higher complexities, losses of separations were observed. At the safest complexity range (1 to just under 4), where there were no separation losses, the maximum average number of aircraft controlled was about 24 indicating that sector capacities will vary if they are based on complexity.