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ADS is a method of surveillance that relies on (is dependent on) downlink reports from an aircraft's avionics that occur automatically whenever specific events occur, or specific time intervals are reached. ADS does not require an independent surveillance source, such as a radar antenna, to operate. Due to this capability, ADS can provide accurate surveillance reports in remote and oceanic areas that, for a variety of reasons, will never be inside radar coverage. The ADS reports are converted by data link equipped ground stations into an ADS track and presented on the controller's air situation display to provide enhanced situational awareness and the potential for reduced separation standards.
Types of ADS
There are currently two prominent implementations of ADS that are inherently different. The first type is controlled by contracts established by the ground station. This system is part of the FANS-1/A equipment and is referred to as ADS Contract or ADS-C. The other form of automatic surveillance is known as ADS-Broadcast, or ADS-B for short. ADS-B proved its worth during that Atlanta Olympic Games when it was used to separate helicopter traffic operating around the Games venues. ADS-B is currently being installed across the Australian continent in non-radar areas as a reliable form of surveillance at a cost much lower than installing radars to provide the equivalent area of radar coverage. There are some major differences between the two systems. ADS-C reporting is controlled by the ground station in all situations other than emergency contracts. Only the flight crew can declare and cancel ADS emergency reporting. Although the crew can initiate the emergency reporting mode, the aircraft cannot initiate a contract. If there are no current contracts with a ground station, the pilot can "arm" the mode and then the mode will affect any subsequent contracts. ADS-B, as the name suggests, operates in a broadcast mode where the aircraft broadcasts positional information on a regular basis into the ether. Any appropriately equipped station, including other aircraft, can intercept ADS-B reports from one aircraft. The reporting rate for ADS-B is significantly higher than ADS-C, which makes ADS-B a good candidate as a pseudo radar replacement system in high-density traffic situations. This web site deals solely with the contract version of ADS.
ADS Contracts
As mentioned previously, all contracts other than the emergency contracts are initiated and managed by the ground system. There are three basic contract types; the Periodic Contract, the Event Contract and the Demand Contract. There are also a number of "on-request" information groups within the FANS-1/A ADS functionality that can be added to the Basic ADS Report for downlinking as part of an ADS report. However, these groups must be requested by the ground system when the contract is established. The Periodic Contract specifies the reporting rate at which the avionics is required to assemble and downlink the requested information to the ground system. Only one periodic contract can be established between a ground system and a specific aircraft at any one time. Once a periodic contract is established, it remains in place until it is cancelled or replaced by another periodic contract. Controllers in some systems have the ability to alter the periodic reporting rate to cater for situations, such as traffic density, where a higher or lower reporting rate is required. The Event Contract specifies a requirement for a downlink ADS report to be assembled and sent whenever specified "events" occur. Multiple Event Contracts can be established between a ground system and a specific aircraft.
The event contracts available in the FANS-1/A system are: the Vertical Rate Change Event, the Lateral Deviation Event, the Altitude Range Change Event, and the Waypoint Change event.
The Vertical Rate Change Event is triggered when the aircraft's vertical rate is greater or less than the parameter defined in the contract request. The Lateral Deviation Event is triggered when the aircraft's actual position exceeds a lateral distance parameter from the aircraft's expected position on the active (FMS) flight plan, as defined in the contract request. The Altitude Range Change Event is triggered when the aircraft's altitude exceeds the altitude ceiling or floor defined in the contract request. Each of the event contracts discussed above has a life of only one event. When the specified event has occurred, the particular event contract must be re-initiated by the ground system. The Waypoint Change Event is triggered by a change made to the Next, or the Next-plus-one waypoint. This change normally occurs due to normal waypoint sequencing by the FMS. The Next or Next-plus-one waypoint can be either an ATS waypoint or a pilot inserted waypoint (these waypoints are discussed later). The Demand Contract is a one-off request made by a controller for an ADS report containing only the Basic ADS Group. The Demand Contract is commonly known as a "one shot" report and is useful for updating ADS data and position information. A situation where a Demand Contract report is useful is when an ADS aircraft is climbing or descending. The ADS level displayed for the flight data record does not update dynamically. That is, unlike a Mode C level readout, the ADS level displays the last level information reported and does not change until a new report is received.
The FOM ranges from zero, the worst case, to seven, the best case. The FOM will degrade over time if a navigational update does not occur, eg. if the GPS input fails. The FOM value is generally not presented to the controller directly, but some ground systems use the FOM when deciding whether to paint the ADS track as a high quality or low quality ADS symbol. A number of other on-request data groups are available for inclusion in an ADS report in addition to the Basic Group. These are the: Flight Identification Group, Earth Reference Group, Air Reference Group, Airframe Identification Group, Meteorological Group, Predicted Route Group, Intermediate Projected Intent Group, and the Fixed Projected Intent Group.
The last three groups are explained in greater detail later in this section.
FMS Waypoints
FMS waypoints fall into two categories - Inserted Waypoints, and Pseudo Waypoints. Inserted waypoints include normal ATS waypoints, and non-ATS waypoints inserted into the FMS flight plan by the pilot or the company to assist in the management of various operational functions. For example, a pilot can insert a waypoint as a trigger for an AOC flight plan report. An inserted waypoint does not change or update dynamically. Pseudo Waypoints are waypoints inserted into the flight plan by aircraft systems for the management of flight parameters. Pseudo waypoints include items such as Top of Climb or Top of Descent and, as they are calculated and updated by the FMS according to the actual profile being flown, they are generally updated dynamically. Pseudo waypoints may appear at the same position as an inserted waypoint, but they are generally positions in the flight plan where a change in parameters, such as altitude or speed, is programmed to occur.
Intent Information
In the FANS-1/A system there are two types of intent information that the FMS can provide as part of an ADS contract: the Fixed Projected Intent Group and the Intermediate Projected Intent Group. The Fixed Projected Intent Group is computed along the FMS flight plan to indicate the aircraft's predicted position at a time specified by the ground system in the contract (x minutes from the current time). The Fixed Projected Intent Group may be the sole source of intent information. The Intermediate Projected Intent Group includes up to ten waypoints (if present) between the current position and the time specified in the Fixed Intent. These ten waypoints may be a combination of ATS waypoints, inserted waypoints, and pseudo waypoints, however, the Intermediate Projected Intent Group will only reference inserted waypoints if a change in flight parameters (e.g. a change in altitude, speed or direction) is programmed to occur at that inserted waypoint.
Diagram Key
The diagram above represents the FMS flight path of an aircraft (although it is not representative of the FMS display). The symbols and colors have been chosen purely to aid the explanation. The first yellow triangle at 0415 represents the aircraft's current position. The pink square is the Top of Climb, a pseudo waypoint calculated by the FMS. NOVAR is an ATS reporting point on the route. The flight plan indicates that the pilot will change speed and request climb at NOVAR (NOVAR/M083F330). The orange circle is a waypoint inserted into the FMS flight plan by the pilot to trigger a report via ACARS to the airline's operational control. LADRO is an ATS reporting point. No changes in speed or altitude are planned to occur at LADRO The yellow triangle at 0445 represents the aircraft's Fixed Projected Intent Group position requested by the ground system for thirty (30) minutes ahead of the current position.
The Predicted Route Group waypoint would be a specific latitude and longitude along the FMS route, but for Intermediate Intent, the ACARS waypoint would be defined as a time and track from the Top of Climb (TOC) waypoint (no altitude change is planned to occur between TOC and the ACARS report).
The crew can insert steps of 1000, 2000, or 4000 feet into the FMS. In the example represented by the diagram above, the crew may request to climb 2000 ft when the points on the flight plan associated with the optimum altitudes are reached. If the crew wish to maintain FL 350, the Predicted Route Group would project the continued climb at the next and next + 1 waypoints based on the optimal level steps .
If the crew overwrite the FMS by inserting a step of zero, the Predicted Route Group for the next and next + 1 waypoints will project the level currently being maintained by the aircraft. Example of vertical profile plotted from altitude values extracted from various groups contained within ADS reports for the same aircraft:
The graph is plotted over a period of 48 minutes and shows predicted altitudes from the Predicted Route Group (Next Pos and Nxt+1 Pos) and Intermediate Intent points, in addition to actual altitude values taken from the Basic group (Periodic reports) and the Waypoint Event and Altitude Range Change Event reports.
Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) provided in that report for an Intermediate Projected Intent waypoint or for a Predicted Route Group waypoint, when converted to seconds, is always a multiple of four. Although this is not the case for the A345 or B777, as both of these aircraft will provide ETAs to an odd second. However, the predicted altitudes provided by Intermediate Projected Intent and the Predicted Route Group, in addition to "current" altitudes provided in the ADS-C Basic Group for all three models (B744, B777, A345), are also always multiples of four.
A final word on offsets executed via the FMS. Assuming that the offset in the diagram was executed at the position represented by the yellow triangle with the intention of joining the offset path at the abeam NOVAR position, the FMS considers itself to be at the position represented by the light pink triangle the moment that the pilot executes the offset, it does not take the transition path into account.
Sequencing Waypoints
When an aircraft is on an offset from the FMS route that exceeds a parameter distance from the route (B-A), any relevant waypoints on the route (A) will not be sequenced by the FMS. When a waypoint is not sequenced by the FMS, the intent information (red arrows) will continue to project to that waypoint until manually corrected by the pilot.
The relevant parameter distances from the FMS route are: greater than 21 NM for Boeing aircraft, and greater than 7 NM for Airbus aircraft.