Real-Time Oriented System Wide Information Management for Service Assurance

In the current Air Traffic Management (ATM) environment, there is an information access asymmetry between the flight crew and stakeholders on the ground. In many cases, the flight crew, dispatchers, and air traffic manager do not readily have access to updated relevant information to collaborate in determining favorable trajectories for individual flights. This information collaboration between air crew, their dispatchers, and air traffic manager is constrained by current communication capabilities. Air/ground System Wide Information Management (SWIM) concept of operations offers a solution to overcome this communication challenge in the future. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in collaboration with industry stakeholders conceived, planned and executed an Aircraft Access to SWIM (AAtS) demonstration project to determine the feasibility of air-ground communications. The demonstration was conducted in two phases and a series of scenarios of increasing complexity leading up to initial 4-Dimensaional Trajectory (4DT) preferences exchange. Phase 1 demonstrated the ability to share advisory information with the flight crew by utilizing existing commercial data links and hardware in the flight deck. Phase 2 demonstrated the feasibility of bi-directional information exchange between aircraft and ground systems via the SWIM Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The SOA included data management service provider (DMSP), data link provider (DLP), and electronic flight bag (EFB) with software applications. The final 4DT preference exchange scenario demonstration was completed in October 2016. This paper discusses the concepts, assumptions, communication scenarios and results of the AAtS demonstration project. The lessons learned through the AAtS demonstration provide meaningful considerations for guidance on future air-ground information sharing and collaborative decision-making environment.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Manual on Flight and Flow Information for a Collaborative Environment (FF-ICE) outlines the components and requirements to achieve a common picture in global Air Traffic Management (ATM) for implementation readiness in 2020. To prepare for this global implementation by ATM stakeholders and ensure the technical feasibility and interoperability across implementations, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiated the International Interoperability Harmonization and Validation project (IIH&V) to validate the FF-ICE Planning Provisions [1], FF-ICE Implementation Guidance [2], and message exchanges in a lab environment. This paper explores the technical components of the FAA's IIH&V exercise while the complementary paper “An Operational Approach to FF-ICE Planning and Global Harmonization through IIH&V” explores operational components of the exercises. In order to effectively validate the FF-ICE Planning provisions and implementation guidance, it was required that the exercises focus on two areas. The first focus area was ensuring that future versions of the ICAO exchange models (primarily FIXM) were prepared to support FF-ICE. The second focus area was identifying system-level implementation decisions that could affect international interoperability, critical components to implementation readiness. Thus, the role of the ICAO exchange models, the role of data governance, and the feedback communicated to the FIXM Configuration Control Board (CCB) and the ATM Requirements Performance Panel (ATMRPP) are discussed herein. The FAA split the focus of the IIH&V project into three sequential validation exercises, with each exercise integrating more advanced systems into the lab infrastructure. For each exercise, the paper presents a system architecture diagram as well as an overview of the messages exchanged across systems. Several validation exercises have taken place in the context of a mixed mode environment in which only a subset of actors is FF-ICE capable, thus requiring the use of “bridging” capabilities such as data transformation to allow systems to remain interoperable despite differences in message type, version, etc. Validation 1 included the initial “mixed mode” environment envisioned in 2020 in which FF-ICE capable actors have implemented pre-departure FF-ICE message exchanges for pre-departure trajectory negotiations, while other actors are still using legacy capabilities. Validation 2 expanded trajectory negotiation into the post-departure portion of an active flight using bi-directional Air-to-Ground (A/G) System Wide Information Management (SWIM) data links, and single or bi-directional communications between the Flight Management System (FMS) and Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). Validation 3 further explored post-departure trajectory negotiation leveraging Data Communication (DataComm) messages in addition to A/G SWIM. The outputs and results of the IIH&V project outlined in this paper bring clarity to FF-ICE Planning Provisions and Implementation Guidance, as well as support the authoring organizations refining these documentations through input given to the ATMRPP. The IIH&V project also begins laying the groundwork for the development of FF-ICE Execution for post-departure.

System Wide Information Management(SWIM), as envisioned by theSingle European Sky Air Traffic Management Research(SESAR) program, is the application of service oriented architectures to the air traffic management domain. Service oriented architectures are widely deployed in business and finance but usually tied to one specific technological implementation. SWIM goes one step further by defining only the semantic layer of the application integration and leaving the implementation of the communication layer open to the implementer. The shift from legacy communication patterns to SWIM is fundamental for the expected evolution of air traffic management in the next decades. However, the air traffic management simulators currently in use do not reflect this yet. SWIM compliance is defined by semantic compatibility to theAir Traffic Management Information Reference Model(AIRM) and a SWIM service may implement one or more communication profiles, which specify a communication layer implementation. This work proposes a SWIM-compliant communication profile suitable to integrate SWIM-compliant tools into human-in-the-loop simulations for air traffic management research. We achieve this objective by implementing a SWIM communication profile using XML-based multicast messaging and extending the message format to support distributed human-in-the-loop simulations. We demonstrate our method by the evaluation of Hamburg Airport operations.

is a programme to modernise the European Air Traffic Management (ATM) System. It is currently in its feasibility definition study phase which is being co-funded by the European Commission and EUROCONTROL. It is addressing collectively the technological, economic and regulatory aspects associated with ATM. Following the successful completion of definition study phase, it will use the Single European Sky (SES) legislation to synchronise the plans and actions of the different stakeholders in ATM and federate the resources needed for the development and implementation of the required improvements throughout Europe; this applying to both the applicable airborne and ground systems domains. The study is being conducted over a 2-year period (which started in March 2006) by the SESAR Consortium, a grouping which, for the first time in ATM history, has brought together the major stakeholders in European aviation to develop a common vision of the future ATM System. The SESAR Consortium draws upon the expertise of the major organisations within the aviation industry. This includes airspace users, air navigation service providers (ANSPs), airport operators and the supply industry (European and non-European), plus a number of associated partners, including safety regulators, military organisations, staff associations (including pilots, controllers and engineers) and research centres which work together with significant expertise being provided by EUROCONTROL. The study will produce an agreed Master Plan of the research, development and implementation plans and actions needed to be taken by the different stakeholders to realise the future European ATM System. This Plan is developed through the production of 6 main deliverables over the 2 years and covers all aspects of the future System, including its supporting institutional framework. The scope of each the 6 deliverables (D1 to D6) is as follows : D1: Air Transport Framework – the Current Situation D2: Air Transport Framework – the Performance Target D3: Definition of the future ATM Target Concept D4: Selection of the “Best” Deployment Scenario D5: Production of the ATM Master Plan D6: Work Programme for 2008–2013. This paper will summarise the progress made to date by describing the results achieved within the deliverables D1 to D3. In outline terms, these cover : a summary snapshot of the current situation to identify the main areas of improvement; an assessment of the future air transport market place into which future ATM services will be delivered; the management and performance frameworks which will govern the future operation of the System and its further evolution; an initial set of performance requirements which the future System must meet; the nature of the Future ATM Target Concept, this comprising the concept of operations to be adopted; structure of the overall architecture needed for the System; set of technologies to be developed and used to implement it.

This paper describes the results of the FP6 project SWIM-SUIT (System Wide Information Management -- Supported by Innovative Technologies) that currently integrates a number of existing ATM (Air Traffic Management) systems on top of a newly build prototype. As SWIM-SUIT has been identified to provide relevant inputs to SESAR, the authors give an overview on the prototype architecture and major software components. The relevant data domains for the prototype are Flight Data, Surveillance Data and Aeronautical Information. The paper provides insights and lessons learned derived from the design decisions of the prototype implementation as guidance for future work to take place within SESAR. The last part of the paper presents a view on the ongoing validation activities that connect ATM systems throughout Europe to the SWIM-SUIT prototype

This paper describes the results of the FP6 project SWIM-SUIT (System Wide Information Management - Supported by Innovative Technologies) that currently integrates a number of existing ATM (Air Traffic Management) systems on top of a newly build prototype. As SWIM-SUIT has been identified to provide relevant inputs to SESAR, the authors give an overview on the prototype architecture and major software components. The relevant data domains for the prototype are Flight Data, Surveillance Data and Aeronautical Information. The paper provides insights and lessons learned derived from the design decisions of the prototype implementation as guidance for future work to take place within SESAR. The last part of the paper presents a view on the ongoing validation activities that connect ATM systems throughout Europe to the SWIM-SUIT prototype.

With the advent of the era of big data, aviation big data is gradually being applied in the aviation industry. As a component of aviation cloud, System Wide Information Management (SWIM) carries a large amount of data interaction and sharing. The security and continuity of SWIM directly affect the stability of civil aviation transportation and in turn affect the quality of service throughout the aviation industry. SWIM provides standards, infrastructure and governance, enabling information exchange between SWIM-enabled applications. Consequently, SWIM must guarantee the survivability of all services between different Air Traffic Management (ATM) departments. In this paper, we describe the threats and risks faced by SWIM, put forward a survivability scheme and evaluate its feasibility through experiments.

System Wide Information Management (SWIM) including SWIM Registry for Air Traffic Management (ATM) has been successfully developed and applied in Europe and United States. The most developing countries have just started to study the employment of SWIM concept, which its establishment is required prior to the development of SWIM Registry. In this paper, we introduce the experience of the development of SWIM Registry Brazil, which comprises the study of the architecture, components, services and data accessing. In order to encourage consumers and providers to participate in the SWIM community, we developed a prototype of SWIM Registry Demonstration for the Brazilian ATM society. We propose a model based on Blockchain for managing services currently provided by Brazilian ATM in order to certificate operations which are performed by consumers, authorities and involved stakeholders. The proposed model is expected to provide services for SWIM Registry with integrity, efficiency, security and authenticity, which are fundamental for the proper operation of Brazilian aviation system.

Despite air travel has not grown as predicted, air travel is still expected to rise to just less than doubling the current figure by 2030. This creates an urging need to develop more efficient Air Traffic Management (ATM) solutions. Around the globe, research and development initiatives have been launched to modernize the air traffic control infrastructures. These modernized infrastructures will be built around continuous information gathering, sharing and transferring of data between aircraft and air navigation service providers and airports ground infrastructure, which will be difficult for current aeronautical communications systems to handle. As a result, new communication infrastructures are required to manage future aeronautical communication traffic demand. This paper proposes an integrated aeronautical communication architecture consisting of four radio access technologies for communications between aircrafts and ground Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN). The design and implementation of a Joint Radio Resource Management (JRRM) framework to manage these radio resources are discussed. The design is verified by a proof-of-concept JRRM prototype which is developed for the management of radio resource between the Inmarsat Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) and the Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communication System (AeroMACS).

The 4D trajectory management program will require a major shift in infrastructure and operational management processes to deliver accurate and reliable information to trajectory management team. As a result, air traffic management operation will demand Network Enabled Operations (NEO) concepts such as the System Wide Information Management (SWIM) framework to ensure that the decisions are made with the correction information at the right time. SWIM provides standards, infrastructure, and governance practices to allow information exchanging through interoperable services. Consequently, SWIM must provide methods to (a) integrate a large variety of data; (b) filter information in a way that only the relevant ones are retained to explain the results; (c) enable National Airspace System (NAS) operators, pilots, controllers, and traffic flow specialists to extract value of air traffic systems in real-time; and (d) to seek and explore complex and evolving data's relationships. However, SWIM still lacks support to deal with big data analytics and to aggregate computing resources on-demand. As the main contribution of this paper, we describe the challenges and new focuses of SWIM researches. Likewise, we present an architecture to enable big data analytics services in SWIM. The proposed architecture relies on big data processing frameworks to handle data acquisition and data filtering on near-real time taking into account users' objectives; and to guarantee that the data go through all the gives stage of the life cycle of ATM applications, avoiding the silos that may happen in each data analysis stage.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is funding and encouraging new concepts for improving air traffic flow management (TFM) decision-making. The resulting automation capabilities will need to be operationally integrated into the existing air traffic management (ATM) system. Understanding how a new capability will interact with existing system components is challenging because of the range of possible real-world situations, which must be handled by the ATM system. Although there are fast-time traffic simulation tools available for modeling the impact of TFM actions, they are often developed as stand-alone tools, which are not extensible or flexible to work in concert with other advanced TFM capabilities for conducting integration studies or quantifying benefits. To address this gap, we have built a fast-time, distributed simulation platform integrating state-of-the-art traffic simulator and allows the plug-in of advanced TFM prototypes - or other experimental capabilities that already exist - so their interactions can be studied. In this paper, we discuss the requirements and the necessary components for building this platform, which requires an architecture that is flexible enough to support many different configurations of modeling tools and applications. We then use a TFM integration case study to demonstrate the utility of the platform. We show, with only minor effort, a proposed TFM prototype can be plugged into the platform and its benefits can be evaluated.

The existing Air Traffic Management (ATM) system can evolve into a Space and Air Traffic Management System (SATMS), as space operations become a more common event. An assessment tool has been developed as a catalyst for this evolution; the Dynamic Flight Path Tool was developed to utilize real time situational information to minimize the impact of space flight to operations while at the same time ensuring a level of safety acceptable to the public. This tool capitalizes on methods that rapidly compute the debris clouds within a four-dimensional space (3D space plus time). The tool has two modes of operation: 1) Pre- mission Planning and 2) Real-time Mission Mode. The Dynamic Flight Path Tool has been applied to a range of sample scenarios that demonstrate how the impact of space launch operations on air traffic can be significantly reduced. 1 . An assessment tool has been developed as a catalyst for this evolution; the Dynamic Flight Path Tool, a Research and Development prototype, was developed to utilize real time situational information to minimize the impact of space flight to operations while at the same time ensuring a level of safety acceptable to the public. This tool capitalizes on methods that rapidly compute the debris clouds within a four-dimensional space (3D space plus time). The tool has two modes of operation: 1. Pre-mission Planning. The Tool enables the planner to identify scheduled air traffic affected by a planned operation and potentially schedule a launch operation during the time of lowest air traffic density and thus, lowest overall risk and disruption. 2. Real-time Mission Mode. The Tool performs trajectory prediction to identify what air traffic will enter the operational area of interest. The Tool provides the Flight Safety Officer (FSO) and Air Traffic Control (ATC) with situational awareness information on the space and air traffic. This allows the FSO and ATC to dynamically manage the airspace as the launch operation progresses, as opposed to issuing a blanket NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) restricting a large area of airspace. The Dynamic Flight Path Tool has been applied to a range of sample scenarios that demonstrate how the impact of space launch operations on air traffic can be significantly reduced. While destruct events are very rare and the vast majority of launch operations are nominal, the dynamic understanding of the space and air traffic picture between the FSO and ATC facilitated by the Dynamic Flight Path Tool gives all users of the airspace considerably more flexibility in managing the needs of their respective airspace users while guaranteeing an acceptable level of safety. Presently the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) considers the risk to flying and not how to respond to the real time situation that exists during a space launch. The FAA follows its strategic planning and does not formulate contingency plans - rather it relies on tactically moving aircraft - to account for the actual location of

In order to improve air traffic operational safety and efficiency in China, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China launched the project of Initial Four-Dimensional (I4D) flight trial in 2015. The project aims to evaluate the I4D operational concept and the performance of the technical enablers. The flight trial was performed on 20th March 2019. An A320 aircraft equipped with I4D avionics flew between Tianjin Binhai International Airport (ZBTJ) and Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (ZGGG). In this paper, the performance of flight trial was evaluated, including Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN) performance, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Contract Extended Projected Profile (ADS-C EPP) performance, Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) service performance, Controlled Time of Arrival (CTA) operations. The evaluation shows I4D offers safety gains with better air and ground trajectory information sharing. The efficiency of Air Traffic Management (ATM) system can be improved as the flight time of arrival is more predictable and precisely controllable. Meanwhile, these changes in operation can reduce both pilot and controller workload by using CPDLCC/ADS-C. Specifically, 62.7% of the regular communication time can be saved. Besides, Top of Descent (TOD) changes during the progress of CTA operations, thus, its information is necessary to help controllers. In addition, some suggestions are derived from this trial. The analyses and evaluation in this paper will help shed light on policies development of I4D implementation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to play a transformative role in supporting human air traffic controllers, enabling them to manage increasing traffic amidst growing capacity pressures. By enhancing their ability to manage increasing air traffic demands under growing capacity pressures, AI holds the potential to transform this safety-critical and human-dependent domain. To explore this potential, this systematic review compiles and synthesises studies on human-AI interactions in air traffic management (ATM), aiming to (1) examine the characteristics of human-AI hybrid (HAH) systems, (2) identify relevant human factors studies and their contributions, and (3) derive guidelines for future advancements and experimental designs. Of the 125 studies that met the inclusion criteria, two primary themes were identified: HAH systems and human factors. This review explores the use of HAH systems in ATM as enhancement tools across different operational levels, detailing their implementation through stages of conceptualisation, development, evaluation, and training. Additionally, it examines key human factor dimensions – such as workload, situation awareness, vigilance, decision-making, teamwork, communication, acceptance, and trust – by presenting relevant measurements, findings, and their implications for improving HAH and human-AI collaboration efficiency in ATM systems. This review offers suggestions for future advancements in HAH systems, ultimately contributing to safer and more efficient ATM.

A study on basic research priorities and development suggestions for the digital transformation of air traffic management