Study on Characteristics and Invulnerability of Airspace Sector Network Using Complex Network Theory

Abstract

The air traffic control (ATC) network’s airspace sector is a crucial component of air traffic management. The increasing demand for air transportation services has made limited airspace a significant challenge to sustainable and efficient air transport operations. To address the issue of traffic congestion and flight delays, improving the operational efficiency of ATC has been identified as a key strategy. A clear understanding of the characteristics of airspace sectors, which are the building blocks of ATC, is essential for optimizing air traffic management. In this research, a novel approach using complex network theory was applied to examine the features and invulnerability of the airspace sector network. We developed a model of the airspace sector network by treating air traffic control sectors as network nodes and the flow of air traffic between these sectors as edges. Network characteristics were analyzed using several metrics including degree, intensity, average path length, betweenness centrality, and clustering coefficient. The static invulnerability of the airspace sector network was evaluated through simulation, and the network efficiency and the size of the connected component were used to assess its invulnerability. A study was conducted in North China based on the ATC sector network. The findings of the study revealed that the sector network did not exhibit the traits of a small-world network model, characterized by short average path lengths and high clustering coefficients. The evaluation of network invulnerability showed that the network’s invulnerability varied depending on the attack strategy used. It was discovered that attacking sectors with high betweenness resulted in the most significant harm to network invulnerability, and betweenness centrality was considered to be a useful indicator for identifying critical sectors that require optimization.