NextGen
Current System
Primary Radar – Creates blip on Radar Screen
Secondary Radar – Aircraft encodes
identifier and telemetry data
VHF Radio – Voice Communications
ATC Radar Screen
Surveillance Radar
ATCO
Goals Remain the Sameqwqq[[[
• Aviate
• Navigate
• Separate
NextGen: Using 21st Century Technology to:
• Increase Capacity
– Increasing Airport/Airspace Capacity
– Reducing complexity for Air Traffic Controllers
•
•
•
•
Simplify Communication
Reduce Maintenance Costs
Improve Environmental Impact
Maintain or Improve Traditional Safety
Standards
Increase Capacity: Build
• Build More Runways: reduce bottleneck for
takeoffs and landings
• Open up additional Airspace
Increase Capacity: Utilization
• Reduce Distance between following Aircraft
– Use Required Navigation Precision (RNP)
– Automatic- Dependent Surveillance –Broadcast to
provide ATC exact aircraft location
– Cockpit Display of Traffic (CDTI)
– Digital Communications
• Reduce Distance for Aircraft on Parallel tracks
– Use Required Navigation Precision (RNP)
– Automatic- Dependent Surveillance –Broadcast to
provide ATC exact aircraft location
– Digital Communications
Increase Capacity: Coordination
• Eliminate unused slots by coordinating flow
– Spacing and merging
– Super dense operations
– Utilize digital communications
Increase Capacity: Reduce ATC
Complexity
• More Accurate Aircraft Location
– Use Relative Position Indicator (RPI) to merge arrival flows,
sequence and space aircraft
– Automated Terminal Proximity Alert (ATPA) to help
monitor final approach
– Converging Runway Display Aid (CRDA) uses visual runway
spacing cues on converging runways to aid in spacing
– ADS-B
– Reduces uncertainty
• Digital Communications
– Reduces uncertainty or need to re-transmit
– Reduces Routing information errors
Reduce Maintenance Costs
• Radar network spread across the continent
– Maintenance of actual radar
– Build/maintain roads to remote locations
– Build/maintain facilities in remote locations
– Aging Infrastructure
Improve Environmental Impact
• Use of 4-D to make orchestration more
optimal
• Efficiently moving traffic reduces
– Noise
– Fuel burn
• Flying at higher altitudes
– Reduces fuel burn and pollution
Challenges
• Technology Cycle
– How do we integrate a system of systems that is
constantly changing
• Who incurs the cost and when?
– Needed capability – managing new and old system
– Incremental capability – start easy and move on