DME-DME Network and Future Air Traffic Capacity

Nikhil Verma and Md Rejwanul Haque

Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) is based on the radar principle and provides information of distance (slant range) from the aircraft to the ground station. DME collocated with other navigational instrument (i.e. VHF Omnidirectional Range) allows aircraft to determine its location (longitude, latitude, and altitude) during flying. The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) has proposed Alternative Position, Navigation, and Timing (APNT) architecture when Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is unavailable with alternate options of VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR), DME, TACtical Air Navigation (TACAN) etc. This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges related to use of DME as an alternate source of positioning, navigation and timing, in absence of GNSS services. Also, paper proposes DME-DME network as a reliable APNT with Required Navigation Performance (RNP) to meet future air traffic capacity. This paper is based on the work carried out at Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), Dhaka, between Jun-2011 to Dec-2012, as the part of the studies in Airborne Radio Navigation System and future trends.