03-22-2016Currently the tracking of aircraft involves on one radar per airport, a system that is facing increasing interference - tests show that wind turbines, whose spinning blades are about the same size as a passenger jet wing, disrupt the radar systems currently in place around the UK.
The proposed system would use existing television signals from transmitters around the country to track the planes.
Each transmitter receives the same signal, but at a different time according to the reflections and interactions of planes in a given area.
Using the television signals would then free up the spectrum currently used by radar to be sold off for mobile phone communications.
The auction of 4G spectrum is ongoing, with different networks bidding for the ability to roll out the new generation of technology that provides smartphone users with faster download speeds and the ability to stream video on the move.
There has been a new generation of mobile technology roughly every ten years since the analogue 1G system was introduced in 1981.
The 5G system is expected to be introduced some time around 2020.
The aerospace company Thales has been given funding by the Government’s Technology Strategy Board for a two-year project to investigate how the current system can be overhauled.
John Smith, head of Air Traffic Management strategy at Thales, told the BBC that the two issues make a compelling argument for change but admits that not everyone is persuaded that the current system, which has been in use since World War Two, needs an overhaul.
"There are an awful lot of barriers to gaining acceptance in the market place," he said.
"In the air traffic control industry there is a belief that things have always been done a certain way and so there is reluctance to move to something that is radically different. We have to prove, first and foremost, that it is safe."
5G free-up: tracking planes with TV signals would free space for future generation of smartphones - Telegraph
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