London Heathrow Airport Uses Sensis Multilateration Surveillance for New Terminal 5
Sensis MDS Enhances Safety and Efficiency Around New
Taxiways and Gates
EAST SYRACUSE, NY – June 9, 2008 − Sensis Corporation has expanded its Multistatic Dependent Surveillance (MDS) system for surface surveillance at London Heathrow Airport in less than three months from contract. The expanded MDS is ensuring the safe and efficient movement of aircraft around Terminal 5’s 50 stands, adding significant capacity to the airport.
“Sensis worked with us to develop a solution that addressed all the surveillance needs under a highly challenging timeframe,” said Graeme Henderson, NATS Manager Surveillance. “The expanded system was quickly operational and accepted with no interruption to the airport or existing ground surveillance system.”
London Heathrow Airport became the world’s first major international airport operational with multilateration using Sensis MDS equipment in November 2002. The system was expanded in 2005 to improve surface surveillance for the area surrounding a new Air Traffic Control tower. This third expansion of Sensis MDS meets new surveillance challenges from the airport’s growth associated with Terminal 5.
Sensis MDS uses multiple low-maintenance, non-rotating sensors to triangulate aircraft location based on transponder signals and supply air traffic controllers with precise aircraft position and identification information. The small, lightweight nature of the sensors also enables them to be repositioned for further system flexibility and expandability. With a higher update rate and greater positional accuracy than traditional radar, Sensis MDS provides consistent, accurate surveillance performance regardless of weather conditions. MDS’ architecture and advanced multi-path elimination algorithms results in precise surveillance using the minimum number of ground stations for reduced cost and complexity. Additionally, every MDS sensor supports Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) for easy migration to future technologies.
“The flexibility to easily expand an MDS system is a key part of the MDS architecture, providing customers with a future-proof investment,” said Tony Lo Brutto, Vice President and General Manager of Sensis Air Traffic Systems. “At Heathrow, MDS is covering the entire airport and gate areas with 23 sensors – an example of MDS’ ability to achieve outstanding surveillance coverage with a highly efficient number of sensors for reduced life-cycle cost.”
Sensis MDS is deployed around the world for surface, terminal, precision runway monitoring, wide area and en route surveillance applications. Employing the same sensor regardless of the application, Sensis MDS is a highly flexible solution that can address tough surveillance challenges today and tomorrow.
