Optimizing Airspace Sectors for Varying Demand Patterns using Multi-Controller Staffing
نویسنده
چکیده
A variety of design concepts have been implemented in sectorizing en route airspace, e.g. balancing controller workload, aligning sector shape with flow, and maintaining minimum dwell time. To efficiently serve demand variation over time and space and to increase efficiency, models for dynamic airspace management, e.g. frequently changing sector boundaries or reorganizing jet routes, have also been envisioned. In the U.S., a common way to deal with temporary demand peaks in a sector is to use multiple controller teams, e.g. a Radar-side controller plus a Data-side controller. In this study, we propose an optimization model to create airspace sector boundaries that takes traffic demand variations and multi-controller teams into account. We improve upon existing sectorization techniques by acknowledging that sector capacity can be increased by adding auxiliary controllers. By comparing a multi-controller policy with a singlecontroller policy, our numerical results confirm that when traffic demand patterns are steady over time, a single-controller policy is satisfactory. But when demand varies over time, sectors can be designed in a way that allows for strategic use of multi-controller teams. This makes effective use of controller workforce and circumvents the need to perform disruptive sector boundary changes during busy periods.
منابع مشابه
Demand - Responsive Airspace Sectorization and Air Traffic Controller
Title of Document: DEMAND-RESPONSIVE AIRSPACE SECTORIZATION AND AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER STAFFING Shin-Lai Tien, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Directed By: Professor Paul M. Schonfeld Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering This dissertation optimizes the problem of designing sector boundaries and assigning air traffic controllers to sectors while considering demand variation over time. Fo...
متن کاملInitial Implications of Automation on Dynamic Airspace Configurations
The dynamic airspace configuration concept strives to remove today’s rigid structure of navigation aids, airways, pre-defined sectors of airspace, and special-use airspace to provide traffic managers with more flexibility to reconfigure airspace to address convective weather and meet fluctuations in user demand. The impact of increasing levels of air traffic management automation on controller ...
متن کاملManaging Demand and Capacity Using Multi- Sector Planning and Flexible Airspace: Human-in-the-loop Evaluation of Nextgen
When demand for an airspace sector exceeds capacity, the balance can be re-established by reducing the demand, increasing the capacity, or both. The Multi-Sector Planner (MSP) concept has been proposed to better manage traffic demand by modifying trajectories across multiple sectors. A complementary approach to MSP, called Flexible Airspace Management (FAM), reconfigures the airspace such that ...
متن کاملA multi-objective approach for Dynamic Airspace Sectorization using agent based and geometric models
0968-090X/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd doi:10.1016/j.trc.2011.08.008 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] A key limitation when accommodating the continuing air traffic growth is the fixed airspace structure including sector boundaries. The geometry of sectors has stayed relatively constant despite the fact that route structures and demand have change...
متن کاملDevelopment And Benefit Analysis Of A Sector Design Algorithm For Terminal Dynamic Airspace Configuration
Sciandra, Vincent MSAAE, Purdue University, May 2013. Development and Benefit Analysis of a Sector Design Algorithm for Terminal Dynamic Airspace Configuration. Major Professor: Inseok Hwang. The National Airspace System (NAS) is the vast network of systems enabling safe and e cient air travel in the United States. It consists of a set of static sectors, each controlled by one or more air tra c...
متن کامل