ITU-R M.2413 - Technical Manual Global Flight Tracking

On average there are approximately 59,000 planes flying in the world at all times. The possibility of effectively monitoring and informing the status and position of these aircraft is essential to ensure the safety of passengers, crew and communities on the surface of the earth. The United Nations specialized agency for information and communications technologies - the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - has adopted the technical principles of the improved global automatic satellite tracking system.

The dependent automatic surveillance system is a technology by which aircraft transmit data from navigation systems, including the identification of the aircraft, its position in 4D (latitude, longitude, altitude and time) and other data. The technology is called "automatic" because it does not require pilot intervention or interrogation of a ground station, and is called "dependent" since the data depends on the information provided by the systems on board the aircraft. The system relays the information to the air traffic control centers, who track and detect flight profile anomalies and initiate emergency procedures if necessary.

"After the tragic loss of life with the disappearance of the MH370 flight in 2014 over the South China Sea, ITU has made a commitment to improve the tracking of aircraft in flight using advanced information and communications technologies," said the Secretary ITU General Houlin Zhao. "The adoption of these technical principles for the improvement of satellite aircraft surveillance will make great progress in saving lives," he said.

Various aircraft-dependent automatic surveillance systems have been standardized within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), such as the ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) and ADS-C (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Contract) land system. The technical principles adopted by the ITU help to implement ADS-B receivers by satellites, which makes it possible to improve aircraft tracking, particularly in areas where it is impractical to install terrestrial receivers such as oceans, poles and remote areas.

The Communications Research Group (GICom) has participated in the successive meetings of the Study Group (WP5B) that drafted the report. In addition to the contributions made, particularly one of the studies included in the ITU-R M.2413 report, it was conducted by the GICom at the San Nicolás Regional Faculty.

"The adoption of technical principles in the ITU report is an important step towards improving global air traffic safety," said François Rancy, Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector. "This represents a breakthrough in the implementation of the decisions taken by the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference on the use of the radio spectrum for satellite-dependent automatic surveillance of aircraft." he pointed.