ADS-B-Feature-Based Error Correction Method Implementation and Validation Using SDR

The secondary surveillance radar is a crucial tool in air traffic control, used to identify and track aircraft. However, the transmission of secondary surveillance radar signals can be affected by noise, distortion, and interference, leading to errors in the received radar messages. This can potentially cause safety issues and impact the efficiency of the system. In this article, we propose an error correction method called the “Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B)-feature-based error correction method” to address this problem. Our method uses the cyclic redundancy check codes contained in Mode-S ADS-B signals transmitted by aircraft in the 1090-MHz band to detect and correct errors in the received radar messages by utilizing the look-up syndrome table and the unique features of ADS-B messages, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) address, downlink format, and capability for matching. We evaluate the performance of our method using collected data and compare it with an existing baseline technique. The results show that our proposed method outperforms this baseline technique in terms of error correction rate and computational speed. The proposed method has the potential to improve the efficiency and accuracy of air traffic control.