Avionics integration for CNS/ATM

Commercial aviation is changing around the globe. As the number of travelers increases, parts of the system experience severe congestion. Airports, air traffic controllers, communication networks, and the airspace itself (governed by laws stipulating minimum vertical, lateral, and head-to-tail separation of aircraft) are near their capacity during peak times. The ramifications of this congestion are many, encompassing economics, union workload issues, safety and performance. One prediction is that as the entire system becomes saturated around 2005, small average delays will highly perturb the system, resulting in large variances in actual arrival times. Basically, the entire air transportation system will become unpredictable. The paper discusses a possible solution in the form of the Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management system (CNS/ATM).