Development of the Traffic Prediction Module of a Decision Support Tool for Sector Configuration Planning

Abstract

In an Air Traffic Control system, the decision about the sector configuration that results in an optimal level of controller workloads made by the supervisor based on his personal skills and experience. However safety and efficiency reasons make it advisable to support this decision process by an automated tool which is able to provide suggestions about the optimal sector configuration. Such a tool is required to simulate every step of the supervisor’s decision process, including the prediction of the traffic situation expected to occur in the near future. In this paper, we present the functions that need to be implemented by the traffic prediction module of the decision support tool as well as the algorithms that make these functions work. Besides presenting the simple projection of aircraft position, simulation of the avoidance of restricted airspace segments or the actions of air traffic controllers will also be considered.