A Study of ADS-B Data Evaluation and Related Problems

Busyairah Syd Ali, Wolfgang Schuster, Washington Ochien, Arnab Majumdar, Chiew Thiam Kian

Abstract:	The Air Traffic Management (ATM) system is in the process of undergoing a paradigm shift from a predominantly tactical system to a strategic system founded on collaborative decision making (CDM). As identified in the Single European Sky (SES) ATM Research (SESAR) and the USA Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGEN) programs, a key element of CDM is enhanced and shared situational awareness. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) system is expected to play a key role in achieving this goal and to facilitate some of the safetycritical functions envisioned under these future operational concepts, including self-separation and Air Traffic Control based separation with reduced separation minima. ADS-B is a very complex system, highly dependent on the navigation and communication systems. A rigorous, clear and comprehensive assessment method is required to ensure that it is safe to operate in any particular context. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework to evaluate ADS-B data performance to assess whether it can meet the accuracy, latency and update rate requirements to support the above-mentioned safetycritical applications. In the proposed framework, Global Positioning System (GPS) data from aircraft navigation system are used as the reference data to validate ADS-B data accuracy as recorded by ground stations. The framework begins by decoding both sets of data (ADS-B and GPS) into the ASCII format. Both sets are then correlated based on the time and horizontal position, the most challenging task in the data evaluation process. A statistical evaluation is carried out in terms of accuracy, latency and update rate. The key challenges in this analysis and errors identified in each dataset are discussed in this paper.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2013 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 29 - 27, 2013 Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, California
Pages:	444 - 455
Cite this article:	Ali, Busyairah Syd, Schuster, Wolfgang, Ochien, Washington, Majumdar, Arnab, Kian, Chiew Thiam, "A Study of ADS-B Data Evaluation and Related Problems," Proceedings of the 2013 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, California, January 2013, pp. 444-455.
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