Mission and Data Processing Center: A Novel Cns System for U-Space Airspace

This article presents a novel surveillance system specifically designed for U-space airspaces. This system integrates communication, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) technologies to provide precise and reliable tracking of unmanned aircraft in urban environments. It represents a significant advancement in their management by providing greater coverage and accuracy in the detection and tracking of aircrafts, integration of multiple information sources for a better understanding of the airspace and robust and efficient communication with U-space actors, facilitating the management of unmanned traffic. This is accomplished by the three main blocks that form the structure of the surveillance station: an ADS-L Receiver system, a COTS Sensor system and a Management and Planning system (M&P). The ADS-L module uses a linear arrangement of four antennas with dynamic pointing. The Sensors block includes Commercial-Off-The-Shelf ADS-B receiver, GNSS receiver and a meteorological station. Finally, the M&P block consists of a Raspberry Pi 4B with a Linux operating system that manages data from the sensors, calculates the pointing of the ADS-L antennas, and communicates with U-space Service Providers (USSP) and Mission and Data Processing Centers (MDPC). Communication between the different elements is carried out through robust and efficient interfaces.