Luxembourg receives new radar data analyser from FREQUENTIS Comsoft

Luxembourg Air Navigation Administration (ANA Luxembourg) has enhanced its surveillance data quality, further supporting EUROCONTROL airspace regulations. The automated sensor recording, monitoring and evaluation system from Frequentis Comsoft increases the speed of detecting, reporting and resolving aircraft identification issues, subsequently improving airspace safety. All air navigation service providers (ANSPs) are responsible for demonstrating their adherence to current regulations and Frequentis Comsoft’s RAPS-SMD (Sensor monitoring display) fulfils this commitment in support of the Commission Implementing Regulation.

The RAPS-SMD tool enables ANSPs and radar manufacturers to continuously observe air traffic surveillance data streams in respect of communication, sensor quality, accuracy and performance. For Luxembourg ANA this includes the primary and secondary radar (PSR/SSR) and Mode-S radars available from Luxembourg, France, Germany and Belgium and the SDPS (surveillance data processing system). In the background recorded data is used for automatic report generation, post-event investigations and calculation of standard statistics at pre-defined time-intervals.

“We have trusted the knowledge and experience of Frequentis Comsoft for over a decade and are pleased to have enlisted their support in order to further enhance the quality of our airspace surveillance data, in turn improving airspace safety. Since the system was successfully integrated into the surveillance data network at the end of 2020 it has been continuously recording and has periodically analysed all operational radar sources, including the output of the multi radar tracking system.” says Kathy Bauer from ANA Luxembourg.

ANA Luxembourg also recently extended the project for the operational RAPS-SMD with the inclusion of remote services for system care, user workshops, and the implementation of further powerful analysis features for the support of Regulation EU1206/2011 and EC1207/2011.

“For safe and efficient air traffic management (ATM) the reliability and accuracy of surveillance data is critically important. It is also imperative to have early knowledge of issues, which could negatively impact the quality of data provided to controllers, to allow preventive measures. We are pleased to be supporting Luxembourg ANA with the accuracy of their surveillance data, supporting their goals for safe and efficient airspace operations,” says Constantin von Reden, Frequentis Comsoft Managing Director.

The RAPS-SMD provides a graphical front-end for technical and detailed depiction of the air situation, based on real time or replayed data. A number of configurable sensor quality observation features notify the operator via alarm about critical events in surveillance data communication, sensor behavior and deviations from the expected data source quality and status. While carrying out real-time observation on operational data the system is also used in cooperation with surveillance analysis support system for ATC-Centre (SASS-C) for EUROCONTROL analysis in a testbed environment. Various scenarios and radar availability situations are simulated and used to produce performance reports for the surveillance system in respect to the requirements of ANA.