ATN2002IEE, London

Providing Communications Services

to Support ATC Applications

Akhil Sharma

Senior Manager

AIRCOM Service Development

ATN 2002

Outline

Overview of VHF and Satellite AIRCOM Current ATS Data link Communications

Services SITA ATS Application Systems VDL Mode 2 Transition to ATN ATN Service

ATN 2002

Airlines and CAA Customers

AIRCOM Internetworking

and FANS Partners

RGS

GES

SITAMET

DHP

MSW

MSS

SITA X.25 MTN

ADLT(Singapore)

Primary

Backup

ADLT(Montréal)

AIRCOM Service

ATN 2002

VHF AIRCOM Coverage

ATN 2002

Satellite AIRCOM Coverage

ATN 2002

SITA introduced the VHF ACARS services (VHF AIRCOM) in the early 1980’s to support movement messages

Today, over 100 or the world’s airlines are VHF AIRCOM customers with 4,000 aircraft and and additional 1,000 BizJets

The 5000+ aircraft which use the service collectively generate 400,000+ messages per day

In addition to basic movement information, AOC applications have evolved to include:– engine monitoring– flight planning– Weight & Balance, Takeoff Data Calculation– Weather Information – Fuel information– Gate information

ACARS is considered to be a mission critical service

AOC Use of ACARS

ATN 2002

A number of ATS providers around the world have/are planning initial ATS data link services:– Departure Clearance (DCL)/Pre-Departure Clearance Services

(PDC)– Oceanic Clearance Services (OCM)– Digital-ATIS (D-ATIS) Services

In order to promote global interoperability, the AEEC and Eurocae have developed standards for these services– AEEC 623 (Message formats)– Eurocae ED 85, ED 89 and ED 106 (Performance Requirements)

SITA provides a D-ATIS Gateway service in order to allow non 623 compliant aircraft access to 623 compliant ground systems and vice versa

ATS Use of ACARS – Pre FANS

ATN 2002

SITA provides DCL, OCM, D-ATIS communications services (ATS AIRCOM) to an increasing number of ATS providers

D-ATIS direct connections to:– Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Denmark, France, Germany, Ivory Coast, Korea,

Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom DCL/PDC direct connections to:

– Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ivory Coast, Korea, Spain SITA supports pre-FANS internetworking with other DSPs to ensure

maximum access to ATS applications by aircraft operators ATS AIRCOM provides customers with comprehensive support including

help-desk and monthly performance data that reports against key indicators, e.g.– Service availability– Uplink success rate– Uplink transit delay

ATS Use of ACARS – Pre FANS

ATN 2002

Uplink Success Rate 96.56% 97.10%

9.54%

Within 60 seconds 93.85% 94.67%

2001Average

YTD 2002Average

Within 120 seconds 99.21% 99.40%

Message Uplink Delivery Time (based on MAS msgs)

Pre-FANS ATS Performance

ATN 2002

According to industry estimates, there are approx. 1,200 FANS 1/A equipped aircraft today……...and the number is growing !

To date, FANS 1/A services have been introduced in remote and oceanic airspace

An Industry group, under the Link2000+ programme, studied FANS accommodation in an ATN environment

SITA currently provides direct FANS 1/A communications services to 20 ATS providers including the FAA, Eurocontrol, France, Spain, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and India

SITA works with ATS providers directly and through ICAO Regional Planning Groups and FANS Interoperability Teams to ensure the datalink service continues to meet their requirements

SITA supports FANS internetworking with other DSPs to ensure maximum availability of services to aircraft operators

ATS Use of ACARS - FANS

ATN 2002

SITA FANS customers

Boeing Test Eurocontrol Maastricht Korea Airports

System (Seattle) Aerospatiale Toulouse Authority (Gimpo)

US FAA CAA Uzbekistan

(Oakland, CAO Iran (Tehran) (Tashkent) Taiwan CAA

Anchorage, Egypt CAA (Cairo) AAI India CAD Hong Kong

New York) (Calcutta, Madras)

AASL Sri Lanka DCA Myanmar

(Columbo) (Yangon)

CAA Singapore

DCA Mauritius Airports Fiji

DGAC French ASECNA Madagscar (Antananarivo)

Polynesia (Papeete) Airservices Australia

ATNS South Africa (Brisbane, Melbourne)

(Johannesburg)

ATN 2002

AIRCOM use for FANS-1/A

SatelliteAIRCOM

VHF AIRCOM Ground Station

SITA ACARS Processor uses the address

entered by the airborne system to route

messages to the destination FANS-1/A

ground system.

FANS-1/A Ground System

ADS/CPDLC

ACARS Convergence Function

FANS-1/A ADS/CPDLC

ACARS Convergence Function

ACARS Management Unit

VHF Transceiver

Satellite Data Unit

SITA Network

Co-DSP

ATN 2002

Uplink Success Rate 99.22% 99.54%

Within 60 seconds 96.24% 96.17%

2001Average

YTD 2002Average

Within 120 seconds 99.03% 98.90%

Message Uplink Delivery Time (based on MAS msgs)

FANS ATS Performance

ATN 2002

ATS AIRCOM Solutions

SITA has recently launched a new series of ATS systems to accelerate ATS data link implementation:– Airport Tower Systems

• Departure Clearance/Pre-Departure Clearance – “AIRCOMclever”

• Digital-ATIS – “AIRCOMevatis”– Including hosted services

– ADS-CPDLC Gateway– ACARS Gateway

ATN 2002

AIRCOMevatis

ATN 2002

AIRCOMclever

ATN 2002

AIRCOMclever Controller HMI

ATN 2002

ADS-CPDLC Gateway

ADS-CPDLC Gateway

ATS Operational System

ADLT

RGS

SITA ATN router

GES

ATN aircraft

FANS aircraft

VGS

ATN

Sub-Network

ATN ES

FANS path

ATN pathSITA Network Service

ATN 2002

VDL Mode 2

One VDL channel provides at least 10 times more capacity increase over one ACARS channel

Way forward to address performance related issues in high density airspace approaching saturation

ATN 2002

VDL Mode 2 SITA actively supported ICAO VDL Mode 2 standardisation/

validation and associated activities in AEEC, RTCA and Eurocae Contracted Harris Corporation for the development of the “VGS” in

1999 First VGS was delivered to SITA in December 2000 VGS capable of supporting ACARS, AOA, ATN/VDL M2 and VDL

Broadcast in parallel VDL AIRCOM service was launched in July 2001

– 10 sites operational in Europe today– Another 5 sites deployed for avionics vendors

ATN 2002

VDL Mode 2/AOA Industry has defined an interim step towards ATN referred to as

“AOA”, “ACARS over AVLC” AOA allows existing ACARS applications to benefit from the

higher bandwidth offered by VDL M2 Main benefit, in addition to capacity increase, is that no change

required to the interface to customer ground systems For aircraft, transition from AOA to ATN/VDL Mode 2 will require

a software upgrade to the avionics AIRBUS AOA flight tests completed in October 2001 AOA Flight tests with KLM to start end September 2002 An increasing number of airlines are planning to migrate to AOA

for AOC purposes

ATN 2002

VDL/AOA/ATN

ACARS 618 ( Satellite Data-2 )

ACARS 618 ( VHF Plain Old ACARS )

ACARS 618 ( A OA)

8208

AVLC

MAC

Physical

L M E

ACARS Applications

ACARS Router

ATN

AOC/ATC bit-oriented Applications

VDL/ATN Architecture ACARS Over AVLC (AOA)

ATN 2002

SITA VGS Architecture

interface (8) - X2Narrow bandAntenna

interface (8) - X1Wide bandAntenna

VHF Data Radios: Each VDR can be programmed to handle VHF analog ACARS or VHF Digital Link Mode 2

VHF Ground Computer (VGC)

Laptop computerfor maintenance

Antenna Relay switches

Uninterruptible Power Supply

interface (1) - X10GPS source

Power SupplyDual Power Supply

VGS ManagementInterface ACARS Processor

SITA Ground Network

VDL Management Entity Processor

ATN RouterVDL Subnetwork

Connections

ACARS and VDL AOA Traffic

ATN 2002

ATN Services SITA actively contributed to ICAO ATN standardisation/ validation and

development of RTCA, Eurocae, AEEC standards Provision of ATN service over VDL Mode 2 and/or SATCOM requires deployment

of ATN Router(s) Numbers and locations of Routers will be determined by ATS provider

requirements SITA is currently in the process of evaluating ATN Router products SITA is supporting CPDLC/ATN/VDL M2 flight trials with Eurocontrol ATN Service will be launched to meet Eurocontrol Maastricht “Petal to Link2000+”

project timescales Currently working with the FAA to work out participation in the CPDLC Build

Programme SITA works with ATS Providers and Regional ICAO Groups to support ATN/VDL

M2 trials The Satellite AIRCOM service is compliant with the ATN and was demonstrated

in the frame of the ADS Europe Programme

ATN 2002

Communications FlowsAOAATN ACARS

VGS RGS

ACARS DSP Airline ACARSHost

Data Communication Network

AVLC LinkVDL2 Link

ATN System

ATN User Traffic

ACARS User TrafficATN Router

ATN 2002

Conclusions The use of the current VHF and Satellite AIRCOM service to support ATS

communications continues to increase – a true reflection of the benefits provided

SITA encourages and is willing to work with ATS providers to deploy PDC/D-ATIS systems to realise early benefits and gain experience

SITA’s global VHF network is in the process of being upgraded to provide VDL M2 Services

Major airlines are planning to upgrade to AOA to provide enhanced performance to their existing ACARS applications

SITA’s ATN Service will be shortly launched to meet ATS provider requirements

SITA encourages ATS providers planning on ATN implementation to address the accommodation of FANS 1/A aircraft

Finally, SITA is committed to enabling cost-effective improvements in global Air Traffic Management and continually works with ATS providers and the airline community to realise this goal