7 Air traffic systems

Radio-navigation plays a very special role in air traffic. The life of persons depends directly on the proper functioning of electronic positioning and navigation. Many new ideas about accuracy and integrity of navigation systems have their origin in aviation. That is one of the reasons that a closer look is given to these systems. When a plane travels from A to B, it passes through several phases. Firstly there is the takeoff that will be performed on sight. After takeoff, the plane nearly always depends on an electronic positioning system to derive the flight control commands from the agreed flight plan (the route) and the current position. Therefore systems like VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) and Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) are developed. Satellite systems like GPS, GLONASS, and GNSS-2 are also playing an important role. When the plane approaches the runway it is important that also under very bad sight conditions the touchdown will be performed accurately and safe. In that stage the Instrument Landing System (ILS) is used. The performance of this system is impressive. As far as is known there has not been one fatal accident as a result of improper functioning of ILS. To overcome the restrictions of ILS and to add new functionalities, the Microwave Landing System (MLS) is developed as a successor to ILS. In the following sections these systems will be discussed briefly.

7.1 VOR - VHF Omnidirectional Range

The VOR system makes it possible to determine the angle between the direction from the plane to the VOR beacon, and the direction to the magnetic north. Figure 7-1 shows a part of the airway that the plane is supposed to follow. With the VOR angle and the measured distance to the beacon (see section 7.3 DME), the Cross Track Error (XTE), the lateral distance between the plane and the Desired Track (DTK the centerline of the airway), can be calculated. The VOR beacon transmits two signals: 1. A direction independent (omnidirectional) 30 Hz reference signal, 2. A direction dependent (rotating field) 30 Hz signal. The phase of this signal depends on the direction to the receiver. The angle measurement is based on phase comparison of the two 30 Hz signals.

The direction dependent signal consists of two electrical signals v1 and v2, which are being transmitted with two perpendicular antennas.

Figure 7-1

Principle of the VOR system.

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The two antennas both have a figure-of-eight radiation pattern (the amplitudes v):

v1 = m v cos (j t ) cos (wt ) v2 = m v sin (j t ) cos ( wt )

where: m = modulation depth, v

= direction dependent (cos a or sin a) amplitude from the figure-of-eight pattern,

= angular frequency of 30 Hz,

w = angular frequency of the carrier wave (108 - 118 MHz).

Figure 7-2

Radiation pattern of the directional VOR antennas

Both antennas transmit the same carrier, but one carrier is modulated with the 30 Hz cos (t) term, while the other carrier is modulated with the sin (t) term. When the plane is in a direction with angle in relation to the north direction (Figure 7-2), the following signals will be received:

e1 + e2 = m E cos (wt ) cos (j t ) cos (a ) + m E cos (w t ) sin (j t ) sin (a ) = m E cos (wt ) cos (j t - a )

The direction independent reference signal is transmitted as a 30 Hz frequency modulation on a 9960 Hz sub-carrier, with a 480 Hz frequency deviation (modulation index = 480/30 = 16):

ref = cos (ws t + ms cos (j t ) )

where: = angular frequency of 30 Hz, ms = modultion index of the sub-carrier, s = angular frequency of the sub-carrier (9960 Hz). This reference signal is transmitted as an amplitude modulation on the VHF carrier wave and received as:

er = m E cos (wt ) cos (ws t + ms cos (j t ) ) ,

The receiver extracts two signals from the modulated carrier wave: 1. AM detection of the carrier wave results in: a. after a 30 Hz low pass filter: the 30 Hz variable-phase signal: cos (j t - a ) b. after a 960 Hz wide band pass filter at 9960 Hz: the 9960 Hz FM sub-carrier. 2. FM detection of the 9960 Hz sub-carrier gives the 30 Hz reference signal: cos (j t ) . Finally a phase comparison of the two 30 Hz signals gives the angle . The two signals are in phase when the receiver is located to the north of the VOR beacon.

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Figure 7-3

The basic concept of a VOR receiver.

Figure 7-4

The frequency spectrum of a VOR transmitter.

Figure 7-3 gives the basic principle of a VOR receiver. It shows how the two 30 Hz signals are demodulated and compared. Figure 7-4 shows the frequency spectrum of the VOR signal at the output of the AM detector. The reference signal is a 30 Hz sine wave signal, FM modulated on a 9960 Hz sub-carrier. The variable signal is a 30 Hz signal. The phase of the variable signal depends on the angle .

The carrier is also AM modulated with an audio band (300 3000 Hz) to carry a speech signal. Also in this audio band the identification code of the VOR beacon is transmitted, using a Morse code at 1020 Hz.

Because the size of the antennas is small, the radiation pattern (figure-of-eight pattern) is sensitive to harmful alterations caused by obstacles (multipath). This reduces the accuracy of the direction finding. A substantial improvement can be reached with the Doppler VOR system (DVOR), where the size of the antenna is much larger, but where the sensitivity to harmful reflections is diminished.

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7.2 Doppler VOR (DVOR)

As already mentioned in the previous section, a Doppler VOR is less troubled by reflections of various obstacles near the antennas. A DVOR uses two, with 30 revolutions per second, rotating antennas (Figure 7-5). One antenna transmits fc + 9960 Hz, the opposite antenna transmits fc - 9960 Hz. The result is a frequency modulation of the 9960 Hz sub-carrier. The effective Doppler shift is:

Figure 7-5

p D frot v Df = fc = fc vc vc
where v

Construction principle of a Doppler VOR station.

= velocity of the antenna in the direction of the observer (plane),

vc = propagation speed (3108 m/s), D = diameter of the rotating plane, frot = rotation frequency of the antenna (30 Hz), fc = frequency of the transmitted signal.

A VOR receiver must be suitable for VOR as well as DVOR beacons. Therefore the Doppler frequency shift must also be 480 Hz. For a carrier frequency of 113 MHz (in the middle of the VOR band) and a 30 Hz rotation frequency, we then find D = 13.52 m. The phase of this 30 Hz signal is direction dependent. The antenna does not rotate physically, but is build up with a large number (39) of small omni directional antennas. The antennas are positioned in a circle and horizontally polarized. They are sequentially switched on with a rotational frequency of 30 Hz. The omnidirectional reference antenna is placed in the center of the circle and transmits the 30 Hz reference signal, AM modulated on the

Figure 7-6

The frequency spectrum of a Doppler VOR transmitter.

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carrier. When we compare the frequency spectrum of the DVOR station (Figure 7-6) with the spectrum of the VOR station (Figure 7-4), we see that the direction dependent and the direction independent signals changed places. In spite of the large dimensions, the DVOR system is very popular. This is caused by the large reduction of the measurement errors (about 10 times), as a result of the reduced sensitivity to reflections.

7.3 DME - Distance Measuring Equipment

DME is used to measure the distance between an airplane and the DME beacon. Often a DME and a VOR are placed at the same location (collocated). With this combination of beacons it is possible to determine the position of the plane, under the condition that the height is known. The DME principle is the measurement of the propagation time of a radio signal from the plane to the beacon and back. The plane is the interrogator and the DME station functions as a transponder with a fixed delay of 50 s. The distance is calculated using the time difference between transmission and reception. This distance is the real distance R (slant range) and not the lateral distance D on the map. 2 2 2 To find this value the height H is also needed. We see that: R = D + H , from which we find: D = R2 - H 2 . The used signals are short AM pulses in the 962 1213 MHz band. The modulation has a cos2 shape (saves bandwidth), and a pulse duration of about 3 s (Figure 7-7). The pulses are transmitted in pairs with an interval of 12 s. These double pulses give protection against interference and noise, and also increase the transmitted power. The interrogator on the plane has an effective transmitted power of about 1 kW, the transponder on the ground responds with an effective power of 20 kW. The interrogator and the transponder use different carrier frequencies. The interrogator transmits in the 1025 1150 MHz band; the transponders use the 962 1024 MHz and the 1151 1213 MHz band. The frequency difference between interrogator carrier and transponder carrier is always 62 MHz. This simplifies the structure of the airplane equipment. Because a DME is mostly used in combination with a VOR, there is also a fixed relation between the frequencies of VOR and DME.

Figure 7-7

Principle of the DME pulse structure (left) and DME pulse shape(right).

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The pilot has to choose only one frequency. DME can operate in 2 states, the search mode and the track mode. In search mode the plane transmits 150 pulse pairs per second. This large number is needed to get sufficient information in the acquisition period, when the distance to the DME station and the relative speed are not yet known. The tracking bandwidth of the receiver is in search mode about 0.5 Hz. When the signals are locked, the receiver switches to the tracking mode. The transmission rate drops to 10 interrogations per second. Because now only the acceleration of the plane has to be anticipated, the tracking bandwidth is reduced to 30 mHz. The accuracy of the distance measurement is about 0.5 NM, or 900 m. The receivers should not mistakenly use a response intended for other users of the DME station. Therefore the interrogation interval is slightly wobbled in a pseudo-random way. Because the interrogator initiates and knows the wobbling, the correct response signals can be distinguished from the other response signals. A DME station is active and can therefore serve only a limited number of users. The transponder can respond with a maximum of 3000 answers per second. When all interrogators operate in search mode, the number of users is limited to 20. When in track mode, the number of users can increase to 300. The number of allowed clients is controlled by the sensitivity of the DME station receiver. The nearest planes offer the strongest signals and are therefore served first.

7.4 ILS - Instrument Landing System

The Instrument Landing System (ILS) gives a very accurate guidance to the landing of planes. The flight path to follow is in line with the centerline of the runway, and with a glide slope of 3. At thick fog (CAT II/III) the landing is carried out fully automatic. To give a rough indication of the distance to touch-down, several markers are situated ahead of the runway. The ILS antenna that provides the horizontal guidance (the localizer) transmits with two partially overlapping lobes (Figure 7-8). Both lobes use the same carrier frequency in the 108.1 - 111.9 MHz band. The left bundle (as seen from the landing plane) is amplitude modulated with a 90 Hz signal. The right bundle is amplitude modulated with 150 Hz. The localizer signal is horizontally polarized and transmitted with a power of about 100 Watt. The position of the antenna is some 300 m behind the end of the runway. When a plane has landed, it must be fully out of the radiation field of the localizer antenna before the next plane is allowed to begin an ILS landing. This taxiing is a problem with thick fog, because the pilot has a very limited view. In limited sight conditions this problem poses the most significant limitation for the landing capacity of the airport.

Figure 7-8

Lateral guidance of an ILS system.

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Figure 7-9

Vertical guidance of an ILS system.

Two vertically separated lobes with a carrier frequency in the 329.3 335.9 MHz band (Figure 7-9) offer the vertical guidance (glide path). The upper lobe is modulated with 90 Hz, the lower lobe with 150 Hz. The antenna uses horizontal polarization and the transmitted power is about 20 Watt. The glide path antenna is located besides the runway at a distance of about 300 m from the beginning. ILS uses 2 or 3 marker beacons to give the plane an indication of the distance to the runway. The beacons transmit in a small vertical bundle, with a carrier frequency of 75 MHz (2 Watt). The distances of the outer, middle and inner marker to the beginning of the runway are 8 km, 1 km and 400 m respectively. The inner marker is often not implemented.

ILS Localizer

The radiation pattern of the localizer is created with 7 V-shaped dipoles. This pattern is shown in Figure 7-10. To continue lateral guidance after touch-down, the antenna is placed at the end of the runway. The figure shows that also in the opposite direction guidance is possible. Only then the right and left bundles are swapped. Figure 7-11 shows the construction of the localizer antenna. When we use the antenna as shown in Figure 7-11, the received signal at the plane is given by:

Figure 7-10

Radiation pattern of the ILS localizer antenna.

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Figure 7-11

Electrical control of the seven antenna elements of the ILS localizer.

E ( t ) = 1 + 0.2 cos (w 90t ) + 0.2 cos (w 150t ) cos (wc t ) +

( ) + 0.1 ( cos (w t ) - cos (w t ) ) sin (w t - a )

150 90 c

+ 0.1 cos (w 90t ) - cos (w 150t ) sin (wct + a ) +

a=

2p d sin j l

where d = distance between the centre and the outer antenna, = azimuth angle.

After some simplifications we find: E (t ) = (1 + 0.2 (1 - sin a ) cos(w 90 t ) + 0.2 (1 + sin a ) cos(w 150 t ) ) cos(w ct ) For small values of j, and thus for a, there is a linear relation between j and the amplitude ratio of the 90 and 150 Hz signals. The Difference in Depth of Modulation (DDM) can now be described as: DDM = E 150 - E 90 E carrier - 0.2 (1 + sin a ) - 0.2 (1 - sin a ) = 0.4 sin a

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ILS Glide slope

The glide slope antenna is constructed with 2 or 3 horizontally mounted dipole elements. The glide slope bundles are formed with the help of reflections from the earths surface. Figure 7-12 shows the phase relation between the direct and the reflected signal. A plane approaching at elevation receives the following signal, given that the reflection at the surface is ideal: 1 2p 1 4p Dd (q ) - p = E cos ERX (q ) = E cos h sin (q ) - p 2 l 2 l where Dd q l h = difference in distance between the direct and the reflected signal, = elevation angle of the glide slope antenna to the plane, = wavelength, = height of the glide slope antenna above the ground.

To achieve a better radiation pattern, the glide slope antennas are in practice a bit more complicated. Figure 7-14 shows the electrical construction of a so-called null-reference glide slope antenna. This type of antenna uses 3 dipoles at heights above the ground of respectively: hSBO = 9.55 l hCSB = 4.77 l hCOR = 3.82 l

Figure 7-13 shows the radiation pattern of the glide slope antenna. It is clear to see that there are several glide slopes possible, namely 3, 9 and 15 degrees. Commercial aircraft use the 3 glide slope. It is customary that airplanes maintain a constant altitude during approach until they meet the 3 glide

Figure 7-12

Generation of the glide slope antenna bundles.

Figure 7-13 Radiation pattern of a nullreference glide slope antenna.

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0.

15

0. 6

l
5 l

Side Bands Only

15 0. l

1 0.

hSBO Carrier and SideBands Correction hCSB hCOR

carrier generator (fc)

Figure 7-14

Electrical construction of a null-reference glide slope antenna.

slope. So there is little risk that they use the wrong glide path. A correct balance of the 90 Hz and the 150 Hz bundle is essential for a symmetrical transfer function in the control loop of the automatic pilot.

ILS can be proud of a long period of service with a remarkably high degree of reliability. Modern airliners can land and stop fully automatically under CAT III conditions. But when the plane then has to taxi to the gate, the pilot is unfortunately as helpless as a car driver in thick fog.

7.5 MLS - Microwave Landing System

Although ILS has served well for many years, some limitations become more clear as the air traffic increases. ILS only allows a straight approach to the runway. This means that planes with sometimes very different aircraft dynamics have to use the same flight path. This makes a flexible air traffic control difficult, or perhaps impossible. These straight approaches also make it difficult to create an approach path that avoids populated areas and minimizes noise pollution. In the previous section is also mentioned that after the landing, the plane has to leave the antenna field of the localizer as soon as possible. The last disadvantage is that ILS requires a large open area around the runways. An obstacle like a building can disorder the shape of the radiation patterns. This denial of building, caused by ILS, is an expensive disadvantage for airports. In brief, there were several reasons to develop an adequate successor of the ILS system. This development led to the Microwave Landing System (MLS).

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Figure 7-15 The scanning beam principle of a MLS installation. The azimuth function is shown here. For the elevation the same principle is used.

MLS uses scanning beams that are very small in one direction and wide in the perpendicular direction. Those beams cover a certain area. The principle of the scanning beam is shown in Figure 7-15. The azimuth antenna sweeps a beam horizontally to and fro between two angles and is located behind the runway. This beam is small in the horizontal direction (about 2). The plane is hit first by the TO-scan and after some time again by the FRO-scan. The angular velocity of the beam and the scan angles are known. The time between the two hits is then a measure for the angle q to the center line of the runway. The scanning speed of the beam is 20000/second and covers an angle of about -40 tot +40 (azimuth). The angle q can be calculated from:

q=

T0 - ( tB - t A ) V 2

where: T0 = (tA - tB) for q = 0, tA = time of reception of the TO-scan, tB = time of reception of the FRO-scan, V = angular velocity of the scanning beam.

Figure 7-16 The location of the various elements of a MLS installation. Presumably the Flare and the Back Azimuth antennas, and perhaps also the DME/P will not be actually implemented. These functions can, as expected, also be performed with a radio altimeter and with satellite positioning systems.

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The same technique is used for the elevation. But now the beam is small in the vertical direction and wide in the horizontal direction. The beam sweeps between an elevation of 0.9 and 15.

The setup of a complete MLS system is given in Figure 7-16. The coverage area of the azimuth and the elevation sweep is shown in Figure 7-17 and Figure 7-18.

Figure 7-17 The horizontal and vertical coverage area of the azimuth antenna.

Figure 7-18 The horizontal and vertical coverage area of the elevation antenna.

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Figure 7-19 The time-multiplex structure of MLS data. Presumably the flare (FL) and the back azimuth (BACKAZ) will not be implemented. The auxiliary data words (AUX DATA) will fulfill an important role in the uplink of approach routes and for differential corrections for accurate satellite positioning (see chapter 9.2). The Microwave Landing System uses a bi-phase modulated time-multiplex signal in the 5031.0 5090.7 MHz band. The bit rate is 15625 bits/s. The MLS functions will be discussed here. Each function is preceded by a pre-amble which accommodates three sub-functions: the acquisition period to capture the 15625 Hz clock, a 5 bit code for time synchronization, and a function code to indicate the current MLS function. This can be an azimuth function, an elevation function, or a data block. The azimuth function has an update rate of about 13 Hz, and the elevation update rate is 39 Hz. Figure 7-19 shows the MLS data structure. MLS is in principle a 3-D positioning system. Besides the AZ and the EL functions there is a DME/P (a precise DME) facility. The DME/P function can (presumably) be fulfilled in a later stage by a satellite positioning system.

The proportional area where the plane can determine a precise position reaches to 20 NM before the runway, at an angle of -40 to +40 with respect to the center line. Because the plane also needs position information in other areas, Out-of-Coverage Indicator (OCI) signals are transmitted outside the proportional area. These signals indicate whether the plane is to the left, to the right, or behind the runway.

The measurement of the time when a beam touches the plane has to be determined very accurately. The beams have a width of 1 tot 3. Because we want to measure the angles with a resolution better than 0.01, we have to find the exact center (the maximum) of the beam. Two methods have become known (Figure 7-20). With the Dwell-gate algorithm two positions are determined where the signal strength is 3 dB below the maximum value, one before and one after the maximum. The maximum is then found exactly in the middle between those two points. It is obvious that a very symmetrical shape of the beam is essential. The -3 dB value is a compromise between a steep flank for precise time measurements and suitable signal strength.

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Figure 7-20

Principle of the Dwell-gate algorithm (left) and the split-gate algorithm (right).

The second technique is the split-gate algorithm. The amplitude of the pulse is measured at several points. The center of the pulse is then determined with interpolation of the samples.

Although MLS is under development for more than 30 years now, it is still hardly applied. The most important reason is the fast development of satellite systems. Those systems might become as accurate and reliable as MLS and ILS. The indecision caused by this expectation, has lead to delays in the application of more powerful systems than ILS. It is still not certain whether satellite systems will be able to reach the high requirements for CAT III landing. Because of the disadvantages of ILS, mentioned in the previous section, it is operationally and economically not sensible to delay the introduction of a successor of ILS further.

The future will show if, and to what extend, MLS will play an important role in precise landings under bad weather conditions. Cost price calculations and political interests are the most important factors in the choice between ILS, MLS or GNSS. There are contrasts in opinions between the United States and Europe. But also in Europe the opinions are divided on this issue.

The practice of radio navigation requires, besides scientific and technical skills, also a feeling for political relations. That makes this research field even more fascinating!

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