Airborne execution of flow strategies simulation

Airborne Execution of Flow Strategies (AEFS) promotes increased collaboration among National Airspace System (NAS) stakeholders. AEFS recognizes the following current problem: Air Traffic Controllers are aware of the overall air traffic and flight conditions, but lack the capability to collaboratively communicate handling preferences based on flight operators´ business needs, whereas flight operators have limited awareness of Air Traffic Control (ATC) constraints and their potential impacts on flights. By promoting methods to increase collaboration between flight operators and ATC, AEFS targets improvements in Traffic Flow Management (TFM) efficiency, situational awareness among stakeholders, and flexibility in the usage of the NAS. The FAA conducted research and development of the AEFS concept at the Florida NextGen Test Bed (FTB) at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona FL. Project staff demonstrated the AEFS operational scenarios and corresponding use cases through laboratory demonstration as well as Modeling and Simulation (M&S). The objective of this paper is to describe the M&S framework, the use cases and trade studies to be evaluated, and the initial results of the effectiveness of the AEFS concept. The FAA selected Mosaic ATM´s Metroplex Simulation Environment (MSE) as the framework for this effort. MSE is a state-of-the-art fast-time simulation tool, which is used for modeling airspace and airport conditions in order to perform planning, evaluation, and decision-making processes. MSE has the capability to execute What-if scenarios, in which users are able to modify variables and/or conditions to simulate specific events. Through MSE, researchers are able to emulate current and future airspace configuration and utilization as well as airport conditions to assess the impact of changes to the infrastructure or operations, such as AEFS. AEFS M&S activities augment the laboratory demonstrations in several ways. Fast-time simulation v- stly increases the number of sensitivity runs and analysis that project staff can perform. Additionally, MSE includes AEFS functions, such as TBFM Maximum Delay, and TBFM Delay Estimator/What-If that were not included in the lab demonstrations. The FAA can explore these functions more cost effectively through M&S to evaluate their effectiveness.