RTL SDR ADS-B Data Analysis for Predicting Airports and ATS Routes

In contrast with the past, air traffic service providers are transitioning away from radar surveillance towards Automatic Dependant Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) systems to track planes on the ground as well as aircraft more accurately and reliably. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in accordance with this has mandated every aircraft in the US to equip ADS-B OUT to travel within the controlled airspace by January 2020.In this research, the ADS-B data is obtained using a low cost RTL-SDR radio known as R820T RTL2832U and a Raspberry Pi-3B Single-Board Computer. The data is recorded in the Raspberry Pi-3B (which is the ADS-B receiver) and is rendered and visualized with the help of a self-written code. Following this, data is captured and analysed for the city Bangalore, India to determine all the aircraft travelling within the bounds of fifteen unique ATS routes, derived the airports where the aircraft are bound to land and the runway direction of the airport.