Mode-S Radar Interrogation Algorithm Design for Dense Air Traffic Environment

Abstract

. The increasing trend in air traffic density will continue in the near future with the addition of different aerial vehicles. Before the Mode-S protocol, Mode A and Mode C were in use; however, the Mode A/C configuration was only usable in sparsely dense air traffic. One of the useful features of Mode-S is the ability of probabilistic interrogation. However, there has not yet been a sophisti-cated algorithm for many close aircraft. Considering a futuristic air environment with a swarm of drones and airbuses equipped with transponders, we utilized the probabilistic interrogation feature of Mode-S and designed an algorithm. The proposed algorithm is able to collect close aircraft information in a relatively short time. There has also been created a high-level Mode-S uplink and downlink communication simulator in order to exchange all-call communication and record the algorithm’s performance in terms of time and number of interrogations sent.