A simulation study on air traffic control strategies

Air Traffic Control (ATC) plays a crucial role in the modern air transportation system. As a decentralized system, every control sector in the ATC network system needs to use all sorts of available information to manage local air traffic in a safe, smooth and cost-efficient way. A key issue is: how each individual ATC sector should use global traffic information to make local ATC decisions, such that the global air traffic, not just the local, can be improved. This paper reports a simulation study on ATC strategies aiming to address the above issue. The coming-in traffic to sectors is the focus, and the ATC strategy means how to define and apply various local ATC rules, such as first-come-first-served rule, to the coming-in traffic according to the global traffic information. A simplified ATC network model is set up and a software simulation system is then developed. The simulation results reveal that, even for a same set of ATC rules, a bad strategy of applying them can cause heavy traffic congestion, while a good strategy can significantly reduce delays, improve safety, and increase efficiency of using airspace.