Air Traffic Flow Management Research

Pioneering NextGen research for CDM-enhancing tools

Metron Aviation conducts and participates in innovative research to develop NextGen National Airspace System (NAS) tools. The goal of these current projects is to increase common situational awareness and to continue enhancements to Collaborative Decision Making (CDM). Metron Aviation provides assessment of Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) issues and inefficiencies to identify new procedures, concepts and associated technology requirements. Leveraging lessons learned, Metron Aviation applies domain knowledge and distributed planning sciences to produce future operational concepts and system-wide solutions.

Current research includes:

• Traffic Flow Management (TFM) Operations and Performance Analysis (TOPA)provides analysis support to various CDM workgroups, develops and computes metrics that measure the performance of the NAS and conducts a variety of ad hoc analyses in support of ATFM operations.
• System Enhancements for Versatile Electronic Negotiation (SEVEN)is a NextGen concept for managing en route congestion and enables NAS customers to submit cost weighted sets of alternative flight trajectory options.
• Flow Constraint Areas (FCA) Airspace Capacity Estimator (FACE)provides traffic managers the ability to draw new FCAs or modify existing “canned” FCAs using a point-and-click, map-based interface.
• Route Builder is a graphical, map-based tool with relevant NAS information for displaying, creating and editing routes.
• Integrated Airport Capacity Model (IACM) provides decision support for the ATFM planning process.
• Network Flow Model (NetFM) is a high-level NAS model that optimizes traffic flows on a strategic, non-tactical scale.
• Departure Flow Management (DFM) is a web-based capability that supports the automation of what has traditionally been a manual Approval Required (APREQ) release process.
• Tower Flight Data Manager (TFDM) is a terminal automation platform that will establish data exchange and processing architecture for future tower operations including a taxi route generator and a suite of tools for sequencing and scheduling, route-assignment, departure-route viability and airport configuration.