Beacon code usage statistic

Beacon codes are a set of limited National Airspace System (NAS) resource. Currently, the beacon code allocation process is based upon the concept of discreet beacon code assignment to each ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center). This allocation process is done according to the rules published in NBCAP (National Beacon Code Assignment Plan). In this paper, the distribution of codes to the ARTCCs is presented. Also, Host data is analyzed to demonstrate the utilization of codes through the day with varying level of traffic. This analyse is supposed to help identify beacon code bottlenecks in the NAS. There are two kind of bottlenecks studied: (i) ARTCCs which run out of beacon codes most frequently due to high demand/traffic. (ii) ARTCCs where maximum instances of enroute beacon code reassignment occurs due to conflict with another aircraft using the same beacon code. These kinds of beacon code reassignments are undesirable as it increases pilot/controller workload during hand-off. Five (5) months of HOST data from 1st August to 31st December 2007 is analyzed. Individual beacon code utilization statistic for each of the 20 ARTCCs in the CONUS is reported for the 5 month period. On select days for which radar track data is available, the correlation of the code utilization with the traffic level in the corresponding ARTCC is also presented. This analysis provides the foundation of exploiting the inherent structure of NAS traffic to enable a more efficient beacon code assignment, i.e. with fewer beacon code reassignments and more efficient distribution of the Beacon Codes among the ARTCCs.