Preliminary Waveform Analysis for a New Concept of ATC Radar

The expected growth of air traffic in national and international airports requires the development of new, efficient Air Traffic Management systems. A key objective is to develop new technologies for maximizing airspace and airport capacity and safety. The availability of accurate ground condition information, regardless of the information independently acquired by the aircraft or that provided by the controller via voice channel, is believed to be of considerable interest in increasing landing security. Currently, the radar surveillance function and the communication function towards approaching aircrafts are carried out separately: the airport’s primary surveillance radar performs surveillance while dedicated radio channels in the VHF band allow air-ground voice communications. In this context, this paper explores the possibility of combining the traditional tracking function performed by radar with the communication function, which automatically provides aircrafts, monitored near real-time, with a series of data particularly useful for the final landing. The data at issue are typically those related to airport ground conditions, such as local air-meteorological conditions and airport runway management. This information is integrated into the waveform emitted by the radar, thus implementing a broadcast transmission channel, whose content can be automatically decoded by an aircraft equipped with an appropriate receiving system. The proposed study is a preliminary analysis of the topic, with the main purpose of assessing the feasibility of using radar and communication techniques in this particular application.