Airspace Complexity for Airborne Self Separation

摘要

This paper addresses a way how to profit fromrnenhanced information sharing process envisioned inrnfuture Air Traffic Management (ATM) system (bothrnSESAR and NextGen) and to help overcome some ofrnthe well-known ATM-related issues: the need forrnexcessive tactical maneuvering resulting from poorrnstrategic flow/trajectory management; and a lack ofrnstrategic information for user-preferred trajectoryrnoptimization onboard an aircraft. Satisfactoryrnsolution to both of these problems is crucial not onlyrnfor ATM performance and flight efficiency, but alsornfor overall air traffic safety. Related needs for newrnconcepts and tools are even more urgent inrnenvisioned ATM framework based on newrnseparation modes and Self Separation environment.rnAs shown in this paper, the revised notion of airrntraffic complexity and its applications mayrnsuccessfully answer some of these issues.rnOur work shows how a measure of air trafficrncomplexity can be used for dynamic flightrnoptimization and re-planning, and for improvementrnof strategic flow/trajectory management. We startrnwith a general discussion of the meaning ofrncomplexity, then elaborate a set of requirements forrnsuch a metric, and finally offer a specific definition ofrnan air traffic complexity metric. A set of examples isrnused to demonstrate the usage and the expectedrnbenefits.