Tech Week Europe wrote:TV signals could be used to locate aircraft as 5G plans take shape
(British) Air Traffic Control Systems Could Ditch Radar And Release 5G Spectrum
Spectrum for 5G mobile networks could be freed up if a radical new system for air traffic control is approved.
Radar provider Thales has been given government funding by the Technology Strategy Board to investigate how existing TV signals could be used to locate and track aircraft – using a system called “multi-static primary surveillance radar”, or “passive radar“. The study also involves the UK’s air traffic control provider NATS and research organisation Roke Manor.
The government likes passive radar as it would allow it to sell off the spectrum currently used by air traffic control, while Thales argues that it would be much more reliable than the existing method, which has been in place since the Second World War.
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