SOFTWARE
AIR TRAFFIC TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2020 67.
produced by AirTOP’s airspace and airside
modules are accurate and reliable.
En-Route
The En-Route module takes care of the air
traffic simulation between airports. Elements
such as waypoints, Air Traffic Services (ATS)
routes with altitude and/or speed restrictions
specified per segment and in both directions,
Air Traffic Control (ATC) sectors and
dynamic sectorisation concepts, Flight Level
Allocation Scheme (FLAS) areas, radar
controller tasks and the dynamic allocation
of a radar controller to a given sector, can all
be modelled one at a time or imported from
external data sources. The routing concept in
AirTOP avoids the duplication of traffic
paths for aircraft flying to or from the same
destination while providing a simple and
fast way to create an En-Route traffic
simulation model.
This simple setup can also be escalated to
a more complex implementation. The
module supports the creation of flight routes
that combine the use of waypoints and
airways or ATS routes. The ATS routes
concept enables the user to create
bi-directional airways, with open flight levels
specified by segment. In addition to that,
sectors, control centres, and regional
airspaces are also supported. Letters of
agreement, context-based altitude changes,
and dynamic re-routing can be modelled
with rules that are associated with specific
controllers. This association enables accurate
workload estimations. Furthermore, the
conflict detection and resolution rule base
provided with the module is user editable.
Aircraft movements and controller tasks
generate exportable report events that can
also be used offline to estimate controller
workload with other methods. This
estimation can also be performed online
with a customizable workload model that
allows the association of work durations to
specific events. Built-in statistics per sector,
flight, airport, or runway can be easily
queried and exported. Result statistics can
also be aggregated from multiple runs with
random variations.
Flow Management and 4D trajectories
The Flow Management module analyses and
optimses the flow of aircraft including
Demand/Capacity Balancing (DCB). Various
flow management strategies can be modelled
such as queuing at sector entry, sector
re-configuration or level capping.
Arrival Manager (AMAN) and Traffic
Management Advisor (TMA) configurations
can be modelled. The AMAN/TMA can
anticipate changes in touchdown demand
and build an optimal and feasible arrival
sequence that respects minimum separation
criteria. Multiple AMAN/TMA running
together on different runway systems is
supported. En-Route queuing systems and
AMAN/TMA can publish En-Route time
constraints. Strategies to achieve the given
target times or separations include speed
control, En-Route path stretching, holding
stack, and delay at gate or take-off. The
module supports the modelling of planned
4D trajectories, which are estimated before
and during the simulation. Planned 4D
trajectories are updated dynamically during
simulation in response to controller actions,
unexpected delays, or DCB measures. The
behaviour of network/flow management
actors can be defined and negotiations
between actors can be modelled with userdefined
rule bases which determine the
chain of actors involved in a negotiation. The
workload associated with negotiation and
flow management can be simulated
dynamically and customized for each actor.
Planned and unplanned delays are
measured accurately per flight and can be
logged at different times. The difference in
flight duration, flight distance, and fuel burn
between the last planned 4D trajectory
before take-off and the final 4D trajectory
updated during flight can be logged.
Airspace, waypoint or airport entry and
occupancy count can be plotted for all types
of planned 4D trajectory.
TMA/TRACON
The terminal maneuvering area and terminal
radar approach control (TMA/TRACON)
module supports all critical approach and
departure structures for airports. It simulates
all related aircraft movements in the airport
TMA/TRACON airspace as well as the
required departure/approach controller
tasks. Linking all airport processes and
events with ATC on the surface and in the
terminal area, such as advanced AMAN and
DMAN (departure manager) and emulating
ATFCM and CDM (collaborative decision
making) events, the module will help the
busy airport to understand capacity issues
and underlying delay factors. En-Route
domain objects, runways, standard
Left: PointMerge Approach Modeling in the AirTOP software
Right: AirTOP supports complex ATM Fast-Time Simulation
Below: Airport Airside modelling and simulation is possible
using Transoft’s AirTOP