Automatic Dependent Surveillance Rebroadcast Technology Analysis

In lieu of eminent future air traffic in the next 10-30 years for the United States North American air space, also known as the National Air Space (NAS), many technologies are being investigated for enhancing Air Traffic Control (ATC). This increase in air traffic includes the increase of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (AVs) of all sizes, at all altitudes, and varying average speeds. The technology of Automatic Dependent Surveillance Rebroadcasting (ADS-R) combines the existing technology used with manned AVs in the NAS called, Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), and an ‘physical layer’ digital communications technology called flooding. Flooding allows the retransmission of the existing ADS-B AV flight information to ‘in the area’ adjacent AVs, where in a few retransmission epochs will have communicated to all AVs in the designated geographic area.