A Distributed, Message-based, Airspace Environment

George C. McKinney and Albert W. Blackburn

Abstract:	This paper defines a new model for future airspace control, that depends on precise positioning, digital communications, and data processing. An overview of GPS’ potential impact on global air commerce is presented. Satellite navigation and digital communications can create an airspace information environment, while airborne microprocessors can provide synergism, synthetic vision, and moving map displays. Analogies between the national airspace system (NAS) and the data processing (DP) industry are explored. The DP industry has seen the advent of intelligent workstations that have altered both the economics and design of many applications. It is now attractive to implement “distributed applications” where some computation and part of the data reside at the workstation. In this way greater responsibility and control can be assumed by the end-user, while new graphical user interfaces are more intuitive. Avionics should follow this pattern, taking advantage of airborne microprocessors and data storage to redistribute selected traffic separation responsibility to the cockpit. The potential for greater safety and increased system capacity lies with intelligent cockpit displays that incorporate conflict warning and resolution, while adding terrain/ weather/ restricted-airspace avoidance data. Display designs can take giant steps toward improving both the pilot’s and controller’s interface, with the objective of making safe flight more intuitive and less error prone. It is critical not to rehash the present air traffic control architecture, which is predicated on extensive, centralized, ground-based control. The new technologies for navigation and communication allow us to redesign the airspace environment to include “intelligent aircraft” as network nodes, and thereby to realign functional responsibilities. This redesign results in a distributed, messagebased, airspace environment based on the same information engineering principles that have been fleshed out for DP networking and distributed data processing.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 4th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1991) September 11 - 13, 1991 Albuquerque, NM
Pages:	345 - 362
Cite this article:	McKinney, George C., Blackburn, Albert W., "A Distributed, Message-based, Airspace Environment," Proceedings of the 4th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1991), Albuquerque, NM, September 1991, pp. 345-362.
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