Safety Analysis of Conflict Prevention Algorithms

Different types of information are used to help aircraft maintain separation standards. At the lowest level, information is needed to indicate if separation standards will be violated in the near future, called a conflict. Once a conflict is detected, then conflict resolution information may be used to create a new path in which there is no conflict. Most future airspace concepts propose using computer algorithms to produce this information. Both conflict detection and resolution algorithms usually work in a pair-wise fashion: the ownership aircraft and one other aircraft. In situations where traffic density is low, this pair-wise assumption does not significantly impact operations. However, when traffic density is high, resolving one conflict may result in new near-term conflicts called secondary conflicts. These secondary conflicts may be nearer (in time) than the original conflict being addressed, so, the safety of the aircraft depends on avoiding these conflicts.