Rannoch's Extended Surveillance Goes Operational over Taiwan Strait

Rannoch Corporation's extended surveillance commenced operational service across the Taiwan Strait for air traffic control purposes following a series of technical and operational tests.

The system, which Rannoch calls Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS-X) tracks aircraft equipped with Mode A/C and Mode S transponders as well as those with ADS-B, and is the world's first multilateration system that provides seamless surveillance transitions from the surface, through the terminal and en route phases, Rannoch says.  And it has a unique over-the-horizon capability that allows aircraft tracking that is not impeded by the Earth's curvature.

Multilateration uses the differences between arrival time to triangulate the source location of signals emitted by aircraft transponders, which are received by a network of distributed ground station sensors.  The sensors decode and timestamp the signals and communicate this information to a central processor using a range of communications options including standard modems and leased lines.

In this case the system provides surveillance from Southwest Taiwan to Kinmen Island, located near mainland China's Fujian Province, making it the world's largest operational system of its type, according to Rannoch.

The Kinmen installation includes certified radar data processing equipment and controller displays in the Kinmen tower and TRACON (terminal radar approach control).  The system also provides ATC with automatic collision alert functions.  07-05-2006.

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