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The ADS Studies and Trials Project (ASTP) |
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The purpose of the ADS Studies and Trials project (ASTP) is to support the validation of ground and airborne surveillance applications that are enabled by automatic dependent surveillance (ADS) and traffic information service (TIS) technologies.
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The objectives of the ASTP project are to support the EUROCONTROL CASCADE programme in:
- pre-operational validation and subsequent implementation of the advanced ADS-B-based ground surveillance applications ADS-B NRA (ADS-B in non-radar airspace) and ADS-B RAD (ADS-B in radar airspace),
- the validation of TIS-B technology,
- the specification and validation of of other, less mature, ADS-B based ground surveillance applications (ADS-B APT and ADS-B ADD), and
- the validation of air traffic situation awareness (ATSAW) airborne applications.
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More information about the CASCADE programme |
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ADS-B is a surveillance system in which aircraft regularly transmit data derived from on-board systems in a broadcast mode. The broadcast nature of the transmissions allows aircraft to receive data from the transmitting aircraft.
Data of particular interest for the surveillance of an aircraft are the position of the aircraft, its velocity, and its identity.
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Position and velocity data are transmitted twice per second, whereas other, less frequently changing, data may have lower update rates. It is “automatic” since no external trigger is required, and “dependent “ since it depends on on-board avionics data.
TIS-B is a ground-to-air data link, where ground surveillance systems regularly transmit their traffic picture within a service volume of airspace to aircraft subscribing to those services. TIS-B, together with ADS-B received by aircraft, is an enabler for on-board ATSAW (air traffic situation awareness) applications.
ADS-B is considered as one of the contributing enablers to the SESAR operational concept.
From a number of alternatives, the "1090 Extended Squitter (1090 ES)” technology was selected as the global ADS-B datalink technology so as to ensure world-wide interoperability between airborne and ground systems.
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The ASTP team has performed extensive performance and capacity assessments of the three main ADS-B datalink technologies (and, in particular, on the 1090 ES technology).
The ASTP team also developed the ADS-B/TIS-B Validation Test Bed (AVT).
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More information about the AVT |
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Platform Integration and Verification |
The AVT was built and integrated according to a planned number of phases in ascending level of complexity and increasing number of components and interfaces. Each subsequent phase built upon the baseline of the previous phase.
The development of the AVT consisted more in the integration of components than on the development of software, but some data formatting software had to be developed to enable the exchange of data between components. As for the components themselves, they ranged from commercial off-the-shelf products, existing products tailored to CASCADE specifications, and new products developed by industry to CASCADE specifications.
The integration and verification activities also included:
- the configuration and (fine) tuning of components,
- the performance of interoperability tests and the verification of adherence to standards, and
- The assuring of the integrity, accuracy, and continuity of the data within the various data flows through the test bed.
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Data collection for airborne performance analysis |
The AVT continually receives and processes real-time surveillance data. All recorded data is archived and, each month, a report on equipage trend and ADS-B data contents is provided.
The data is equally used by the CASCADE ADS-B Airborne Monitoring Project in order to determine the accuracy and latency of on-board installations.
A participating general aviation aircraft has been equipped with a certified GPS and a Mode-S transponder. On board this aircraft, the GPS data is regularly recorded and so can be compared at a later date to the final ground surveillance data.
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Interoperability tests for industry. |
The AVT allows manufacturers of ground stations to verify the performance of their equipment in a realistic surveillance environment.
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Author:
Last validation: 18/02/2008
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