Construction and analysis of the three-dimensional flight conflict network model

The construction of flight conflict networks often overlooks the element of flight altitude, which is crucial for a more realistic representation of actual air traffic. In this paper, we propose a three-dimensional flight conflict network model that takes into account the altitude and speed of aircraft. Firstly, we establish an ellipsoidal flight protection zone model centered around the aircraft. Then, we use the aircraft as nodes, and determine potential conflicts between aircraft by whether they enter the flight protection zone. If there is a potential conflict, a connection is formed between the nodes, and the weight of the conflict edge is determined by the proximity effect between the aircraft, thus constructing a three-dimensional flight conflict network. We also analyze the changes in betweenness centrality, degree centrality, and point strength of the nodes in the network, as well as the average point strength and robustness of the network under two different node reduction strategies. The simulation results in MATLAB show that, compared to indiscriminate guidance, degree-priority selective guidance has a more significant effect on reducing the average point strength and robustness of the network, confirming that the degree-priority strategy can effectively reduce the complexity of the flight conflict network. The network model constructed in this study can provide a theoretical basis for air traffic controllers to manage conflicting aircraft.