[Mratc-developers] Define some ATC specifications

[Michael R. <ht...@us...>]

Let's define some ATC specifications:

If we plan around handling US air traffic volume, we should be
able to handle volumes for any part of the world.  For the US, I
think a good maximum for the number of flights in the air at one
time is about 223,440.
- planes should have an enroute horizontal separation of 5
nautical miles
- planes at 28,000 feet will head 0 degrees, +/- 45 degrees
- planes at 28,750 feet will head 45 degrees, +/- 45 degrees
- planes at 29,500 feet will head 90 degrees, +/- 45 degrees
- planes at 30,250 feet will head 135 degrees, +/- 45 degrees
- planes at 31,000 feet will head 180 degrees, +/- 45 degrees
- planes at 31,750 feet will head 225 degrees, +/- 45 degrees
- planes at 32,500 feet will head 270 degrees, +/- 45 degrees
- planes at 33,250 feet will head 315 degrees, +/- 45 degrees
- planes will choose the heading that matches most closely their
desired heading and request permission to fly at that altitude
or heading
- at mach 0.85, 5 nautical miles can be traveled in 35.9 seconds
- one fifth of that is 7.2 seconds.  Let's have a lookahead
interval of 7.2 seconds.
- planes take about 10 seconds to turn 90 degrees (maximum
course adjustment within an altitude)
- 35.9 seconds (time to travel 5 nautical miles) plus 10 seconds
(time to turn 90 degrees) is 45.9 seconds.  45.9 seconds can be
spanned by 8 7.2 second lookahead intervals.  Let's lookahead 8
intervals, or 57 seconds into the future, 7.2 seconds at a time.
- let's keep planes separated by 6 nautical miles.  This
provides a soft boundary to watch for planes that might approach
the 5 nautical mile separation limit during an ATC compute
cycle.
- ATC cycle time to evaluate all flights might be set at 7.2
seconds for now.  Maybe we should do it more often, maybe less,
maybe we just start a new cycle whenever we finish the last one.

Let me know of any feedback you have about these specifications.
Are they realistic?  Do they need adjustment?  That's all for
now.

--Mike