Munich 08-May-2017
Commercial aircraft flying in the airspace that is controlled by EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Center (MUAC) are enjoying an extra measure of safety today thanks to the installation of a radio direction finding (RDF) system that employs Rohde & Schwarz products. In the first phase of a deployment that helps air traffic controllers locate and track aircraft voice communications, four RDF units have been in operational use since October 2016. The complete rollout of seven units in Belgium, the Netherlands and northwest Germany is planned by the end of June 2017.
More than 1.77 million flights pass through MUAC’s area of responsibility each year, making it the third busiest air traffic control facility in Europe in terms of traffic volume. In this densely populated airspace, 25 aircraft are often being controlled at any one time in a single sector. Radiolocation based on RDF helps controllers quickly locate which aircraft are transmitting on each frequency. RDF technology accurately calculates a transmitting aircraft’s area by analyzing its radio transmissions. This helps reduce call sign confusion, readbacks from wrong aircraft and crossed transmissions. Patrick Bardet, project manager at EUROCONTROL, comments: “RDF makes working with heavy traffic easier for air traffic controllers because it gives them an idea of which aircraft is calling, saving them precious seconds, especially when aircraft have similar call signs.”
At the system level, all data from the different RDF stations is collected and processed centrally at MUAC. Measurement results are collected from each RDF and also at several frequencies of interest in parallel, enabling air traffic controllers to monitor the desired frequencies in their allocated flight sector.
The EUROCONTROL system uses the R&S DDF04E direction finder from Rohde & Schwarz, which features parallel direction finding on multiple channels with the same high level of accuracy on all channels. A wide-aperture DF antenna with nine antenna elements is used to collect the aircraft’s radio transmission data, which is analyzed according to the correlative interferometer direction finding method. This combination provides high accuracy, sensitivity and outstanding immunity to reflections. Direction finding can be accomplished on as many as 32 channels simultaneously with the same high level of performance. Software for the flexible management of the frequency channels is embedded in the direction finder.
The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) is an intergovernmental organisation with 41 Member States and 2 comprehensive agreement states. EUROCONTROL, together with its partners, is committed to building a Single European Sky that will deliver the air traffic management (ATM) performance required for the twenty-first century and beyond.
The Eurocontrol RDF project is co-financed by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA).
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Rohde & Schwarz
Rohde & Schwarz is a leading supplier of solutions in the fields of test and measurement, broadcast and media, aerospace | defense | security and networks and cybersecurity. The technology group's innovative communications, information and security products help industry and government customers ensure a safer and connected world. On June 30, 2019, Rohde & Schwarz had about 12,100 employees. The independent group achieved a net revenue of EUR 2.14 billion in the 2018/2019 fiscal year (July to June). The company is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and has subsidiaries in more than 70 countries, with regional hubs in Asia and America.
R&S® is a registered trademark of Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co.KG.
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