METHOD AND APPARATUS TO EXTEND ADS PERFORMANCE METRICS

• US 20080191942A1
• Filed: 07/25/2006
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omnipol as
• Original Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Inventors: Smith, Alexander E., Cassell, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 7,429,950 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/456
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02213 Receivers arranged in a network for determining the position of a transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0263 by combining or switching between positions derived from two or more separate positioning systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/06 Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements G01S5/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0043 Traffic management of multiple aircrafts from the ground G08G5/003 takes precedence; data processing specially designed for resource management, e.g. scheduling or allocating time, human or machine resources G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91

Abstract

A method and system are provided for measuring and monitoring performance metrics of a non-ADS-B tracking system and generating performance metrics for the non-ADS-B tracking system in terms of ADS-B equivalent performance metrics. An aircraft transmits various transponder-based or other signals which are received at multiple ground stations, some of which may be ADS-B stations or both ADS-B and multilateration stations. ADS-B signals may contain performance metrics which are passed on from ADS-B station to an ADS-B processor, which outputs aircraft-derived metrics. ADS-B signals and all other transponder signals are also received at all ground stations, time-stamped, and sent to a multilateration processor, which generates multilateration metrics. Therefore two streams of information are passed onto ATC system processor containing the ADS-B aircraft-derived metrics and multilateration-derived metrics. The ATC system processor may then be configured to pass along both sets of messages to the ATC system, or to select a combination or fusion of the best metrics and tracking information for an aircraft.

Claims

1. A system for measuring and monitoring performance metrics of a non-ADS-B tracking system and generating performance metrics for the non-ADS-B tracking system in terms of ADS-B equivalent performance metrics, the system comprising:

a plurality of ground station receivers for receiving from a vehicle, signals including ADS-B signals, the plurality of ground station receivers comprising at ADS-B stations, and alternate tracking system stations;

an ADS-B processor, coupled to at least a portion of the plurality of ground stations, for deriving aircraft-derived ADS-B metrics from the ADS-B signals;

an alternate tracking system processor, coupled to at least a portion of the plurality of ground stations for receiving tracking data from the alternate tracking system stations, determining vehicle position from the tracking data to generate an alternate tracking system vehicle position, and generating metrics from the alternate tracking system vehicle position in equivalent ADS-B metrics formats; and

a system processor for receiving ADS-B metrics from the ADS-B processor and alternate tracking system metrics from the alternate tracking system processor, the system processor performing at least one of selecting and fusing tracking data based upon the ADS-B and alternate tracking system metrics.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the alternate tracking system stations comprise combined ADS-B and alternate tracking system stations.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the system processor is an Air Traffic Control (ATC) system processor.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the ATC system processor evaluates metrics of both ADS-B and the alternate tracking systems and determines which is the more accurate of the two, and detects errors in one of the ADS-B and alternate tracking systems.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the ATC system applies alternate surveillance data metrics to determine appropriate aircraft separation criteria.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the ADS-B signals contain at least one or more of performance metrics, Navigation Accuracy Category (NAC), Navigation Integrity Category (NIC), Surveillance Integrity Level (SIL) and Barometric Altitude Quality (BAQ), which is passed on from the ADS-B stations to an ADS-B processor.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the ADS-B processor outputs at least one or more of aircraft-derived metrics NIC, NAC, SIL, and BAQ to the ATC processor.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the alternate tracking system processor generates at least one or more of Surveillance Integrity Category (SIC), Surveillance Integrity Level (SIL) and Barometric Altitude Quality (BAQ), metrics information.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the alternate tracking system processor outputs at least one or more of surveillance-derived metrics SIC, SIL, and BAQ to the ATC processor.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the alternate tracking system includes one or more of multilateration, primary radar, secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR), Passive SSR, Passive primary radar, ADS-B angle of arrival from phase measurements.

11. A method for measuring and monitoring performance metrics of a non-ADS-B tracking system and generating performance metrics for the non-ADS-B tracking system in terms of ADS-B equivalent performance metrics, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving in a plurality of ground station receivers, signals from a vehicle including ADS-B signals, the plurality of ground station receivers comprising at ADS-B stations, and alternate tracking system stations;

deriving, in an ADS-B processor, coupled to at least a portion of the plurality of ground stations, aircraft-derived ADS-B metrics from the ADS-B signals;

receiving tracking data from the alternate tracking system stations and determining vehicle position from the tracking data in an alternate tracking system processor, coupled to at least a portion of the plurality of ground stations, generating an alternate tracking system vehicle position, and generating metrics from the alternate tracking system vehicle position in equivalent ADS-B metrics formats; and

receiving, in a system processor, ADS-B metrics from the ADS-B processor and alternate tracking system metrics from the alternate tracking system processor, the system processor performing at least one of selecting and fusing tracking data based upon the ADS-B and alternate tracking system metrics.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the alternate tracking system stations comprise combined ADS-B and alternate tracking system stations.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the system processor is an Air Traffic Control (ATC) system processor.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the ATC system processor evaluates metrics of both ADS-B and the alternate tracking systems and determines which is the more accurate of the two, and detects errors in one of the ADS-B and alternate tracking systems.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the ATC system applies alternate surveillance data metrics to determine appropriate aircraft separation criteria.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the ADS-B signals contain at least one or more of performance metrics, Navigation Accuracy Category (NAC), Navigation Integrity Category (NIC), Surveillance Integrity Level (SIL) and Barometric Altitude Quality (BAQ), which is passed on from the ADS-B stations to an ADS-B processor.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the ADS-B processor outputs at least one or more of aircraft-derived metrics NIC, NAC, SIL, and BAQ to the ATC processor.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the alternate tracking system processor generates at least one or more of Surveillance Integrity Category (SIC), Surveillance Integrity Level (SIL) and Barometric Altitude Quality (BAQ), metrics information.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the alternate tracking system processor outputs at least one or more of surveillance-derived metrics SIC, SIL, and BAQ to the ATC processor.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the alternate tracking system includes one or more of multilateration, primary radar, secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR), Passive SSR, Passive primary radar, ADS-B angle of arrival from phase measurements.