System Wide Information Management: 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 rapid increase in local and global air traffic, the system-wide operational information exchange and life-cycle management technologies are required to improve the capacity, safety and efficiency of Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. The System Wide Information Management (SWIM) concept is to change the conventional ATM information architecture from point-to-point data exchanges to system-wide interoperability. In this paper, the concept, architecture and design technologies of a real-time oriented multi-layer SWIM system architecture for service assurance are discussed. Moreover, to promote the development of SWIM, the project of Mini Global demonstration has been conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to exchange air transportation information among different Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) by using standardized information exchange models. This paper also introduces the results of this demonstration and the lessons learned from this experience.

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.

System Wide Information Management (SWIM), as a basic network facility for providing aviation flight data sharing services, is facing a large quantity of security threats. In order to actively respond to possible security incidents and disasters situations in the SWIM system, this paper studies the SWIM coordinated emergency response and resilient disaster recovery methods to ensure the rapid recovery and survivability of SWIM data services. Specifically, our research includes: (i) SWIM collaborative emergency response and resilient disaster backup architecture based on survivability; (ii) SWIM active drift and compensatory mutual assistance mechanism; (iii) SWIM adaptive random autonomous scheduling algorithm; (iv) Redundant SWIM data backup and resilient disaster recovery method. SWIM emergency response and disaster recovery is the lifeline to guarantee aviation shared data security, which has great significance for aviation transportation to operate safely and efficiently.

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.

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) 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.

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.

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.

With the continuous expansion of air traffic flow, the increasingly serious aviation network security threats have a significant and far-reaching impact on the safe operation of the aviation industry. The networked air traffic management (ATM) system is an integrated space–air–ground network integrating communication, network, satellite, and data chain technology, which adopts a network-centric structure to provide network-enabled services and applications for the air transportation system. In view of the serious network threats faced by networked ATM, this paper studies the basic theories and key technologies of ATM information security assurance and designs a credible security architecture to provide comprehensive and systematic security assurance for networked ATM. Starting from the problems and development trend of ATM security assurance, this paper investigates the dynamic and complex data processing process of ATM system, analyzes the complex interaction between its cyber and physical system, and then constructs the networked ATM cyber–physical fusion system model and threat model. Furthermore, the causal relationship between ATM security threat alert information is mapped into a Bayesian network, and the game model of networked ATM is proposed using Bayesian Nash equilibrium strategy. At last, the information security assurance architecture of networked ATM system based on blockchain technology is formed by establishing a distributed co-trust mechanism and multi-chain storage structure. We expect this paper to bring some inspiration to the related research in academia and aviation so as to provide useful reference for the construction of ATM safety and security system and the development of technology.

Presents a collection of slides covering the following topics: air traffic management system; information sharing; airport surface movement information; flight planning information; airspace restriction; weather information; traffic flow management information.

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.

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

To solve the phenomenon of information islands caused by the lack of communication, tight coupling among civil aviation systems with poor flexibility, reusability and scalability, System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is the best solution for it. In this paper, we propose the functional architecture and technical architecture of SWIM based on Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Some key technologies of SOA are researched, including Service Component Architecture (SCA), Business Process Management (BPM) and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). Furthermore, an example study based on the technical architecture includes three services: basic Flight Information Service, Weather Service and Integrated Flight Data Service which is composited with the first two services. And they are published by Web services successfully. This paper provides a solid foundation for the development and deployment of SWIM in the future.