METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR COORDINATING ADS-B WITH MODE S SSR AND/OR HAVING SINGLE LINK COMMUNICATION

• US 20090322588A1
• Filed: 05/30/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kinetic Avionic Products Limited, Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kinetic Avionic Products Limited
• Inventors: Stevens, Martin, Drake, Peter R., Hoover, Peter L., Rolfe, Eric G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,004,452 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/37
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• 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

Methods and apparatus for an ADS-B system having a single link for communication and/or ADS-B/Mode-S coordination. With this arrangement, the system communication is efficiently used.

Claims

1. An air traffic control system, comprising:

an ADS-B groundstation having a 1090 MHz link to communicate ADS-B and TIS-B information with an aircraft, wherein the ADS-B groundstation does not include ADS-R services for universal access transceivers (UATs) onboard aircraft.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein FIS-B weather information is provided via satellite radio.

3. An air traffic control system, comprising:

an ADS-B groundstation having a 1090 MHz link to communicate information consisting of ADS-B and TIS-B information with an aircraft.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein FIS-B information is provided to the aircraft via satellite radio.

5. The system according to claim 3, wherein universal access transceivers (UATS) cannot communicate with the air traffic control system.

6. A method, comprising:

receiving, by an aircraft, ADS-B and TIS-B information from an ADS-B ground station on frequency 1090 MHz; and

receiving, by the aircraft, FIS-B weather information from satellite radio;

wherein universal access transceivers (UATs) cannot communicate with the ADS-B ground station.

7. The method according to claim 6, further including receiving ADS-B information from other aircraft.

8. A method, comprising:

detecting an aircraft with an automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system;

transmitting information on the detected aircraft to a Mode-S secondary surveillance radar (SSR) system having a Mode-S frequency;

computing range and azimuth information for the aircraft by the SSR system;

transmitting a message to the aircraft to inhibit Mode-S all call responses; and

interrogating the aircraft at selected times via an address assigned to the aircraft to maintain position correlation for reducing message congestion for the Mode-S frequency.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the information for the detected aircraft includes ID and location.

10. An air traffic control system, comprising:

an ADS-B receiver to detect aircraft;

a mode-S SSR coupled to the ADS-B receiver to receive information for a detected aircraft from the ADS-B receiver and compute range and azimuth for the detected aircraft, transmit a message to the detected aircraft to inhibit responses to all-call messages by the detected aircraft, and interrogate the detected aircraft at selected times to monitor a current position of the detected aircraft.