Developing a Decision Support Tool for Complexity Based Estimation of Optimal ATC Sector Configuration

Abstract

The safety (and efficiency) of Air Traffic Control systems is largely influenced by controller workload. In order to keep the workload at an optimum level, the number and borders of sectors in the airspace (i.e. sector configuration) has to be changed dynamically in accordance with the characteristics of the actual traffic situation. Making a decision regarding sector configuration is a highly complex task which makes automated decision support reasonable. Implementing a tool developed for this purpose requires to solve numerous problems owing to the complexity of the automated decision process. In this paper, we will present the requirements to be satisfied by a tool that enables automated estimation of sector configuration, the objectives to complete in the design phase of such a tool and the functions that can be fulfilled by the tool beside calculating sector configuration.