AMCP WGC5/WP16 AERONAUTICAL MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS PANEL (AMCP)

Working Group C 5th meeting Kobe, Japan 15 25 October 2002

AMCP/8 REPORT, non-ATS communications

Presented by Kors van den Boogaard

The attached material is related to the need for non-ATS communications and is proposed for consideration in the report to AMCP/8

Non-ATS Air-Ground Communication Services

1.1 Introduction

1.1.1 The need for non-ATS Air-Ground Communication Requirements is growing significantly due to the increased complexity of operations and the trend towards a full global personal communications mobility. To the extent that it is technically and institutionally feasible the infrastructure supporting the ATS communications should also be capable of supporting the non-ATS communications. 1.1.2 The non-ATS Air-Ground communication requirements can be divided into the following services: Airline Operational Control (AOC): services involving data transfer between the aircraft and the Airline Operational Centre or operational staff at the airport associated with the safety and regularity of flights. Airline Administrative Communications (AAC): applications concerned with administrative aspects of airline business such as crew rosters and cabin provisions. Airline Passenger Correspondence (APC): communication services that are offered to passengers (e-mail, Internet access and telephony).

1.1.3 AAC and APC are non-safety communication services which are not authorised to operate in radio bands allocated solely for aeronautical safety communication services,therefore they are not being dealt within this document. A communications infrastructure providing safety and non-safety services without degradation in QOS for safety communications could provide significant economic efficiencies. 1.2 1.2 Airline Operational Communications General

1.1.1 Aeronautical Operational Communications (AOC) services are concerned with the safety and regularity of flight and as such are defined in Annex 6 of the ICAO Convention. AOC applications involve data transfer between the aircraft and the Airline Operational Centre or operational staff at the airport. 1.1.2 AOC voice communications have been conducted almost since the beginning of aviation. After the introduction of ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) in the early sixties, AOC has played a major role in increasing safety and efficiency. ACARS is a character-oriented system, which is deployed on a VHF analogue data link but can also operate over VDL Mode 2, HFDL and AMSS Data Link. Over time the AOC character oriented applications will evolve towards a full bit oriented environment and the use of voice will diminish significantly. Exponentially AOC communication traffic will grow with air traffic as the messages per aircraft will also increase. 1.2.3 From the perpspective of the supporting communication infrastrcuture, the AOC communication can be typified in two categories: Communications at the Gate: Significant information exchange occurs between the airline operational staff and the aircraft when the aircraft is parked at the airport. This

communication covers information elements such as take off data and software updates. In general these applications require high bandwidth and integrity, but are not time critical. En-Route communications: During flight various AOC applications are supported. There are routine applications such as flight following and aircraft performance monitoring, on demand applications such as weather updates and non-routing applications in case of system malfunctioning. The communication performance requirements for these applications will vary depending on phase of flight or the application.

1.3

AOC Applications

1.3.1 Current AOC Applications include: Out Off On In (OOOI) NOTAM Request/NOTAMS Free Text Weather Request/Weather Position Weather Report Flight Status Fuel Status Engine Performance Reports Maintenance Items Flight Plan Request/Flight Plan Data Loadsheet Request/LoadSheet Transfer Flight Log Transfer

1.3.2 Future Applications When increased communication capacity becomes available the following additional AOC services are likely to be implemented in the 2005-2010 timeframe: Real Time Maintenance Information Graphical Weather Information Online Technical Trouble Shooting Real Time Weather Reports for Met Office Telemedicine Technical Log Book Update Cabin Log Book Transfer Update Electronic Library Software Loading

1.3.3 Further developments. With the anticipated introduction of Collaborative Decision Making ATM concept there will be an increased need for AOC communication, although these applications could also be considered ATS communication. Although there are at present a number of proposals to downlink both audio and video recordings during a flight, for security purposes it would be premature to take these into consideration.

1.4

QOS Requirements

The ACARS applications vary from routine to emergency and therefore there is range of QOS required. The following table provides an indication of the QOS parameters. Parameter Transit Delay Availability Accuracy Value 5-60 seconds 94-99% 10-6

Transferred in to the Required Communication Concept it would mean RCP type 5C through 60G. 1.5 Traffic Estimation

The following table, based on an average flight of one hour is a conservative estimate of the AOC traffic in one direction. For a specific application, the traffic has only being considerd in the direction of the main information flow and to achieve an aggregate value of the up and down link traffic it is assumed that the opposite direction is 10% of the main traffic direction. Application Message Size (Octets) Freq. Per hour Gate En-route

Current Applications Out/Off/On/IN (OOOI) NOTAM Request Free Text Weather Request Position Weather Report Loadsheet Request Flight Status Fuel Status Engine Performance Reports Maintenance Report Flight Plan Transfer Load Sheet Transfer 40 260/110 300 80 260 80 80 50 100 100 200 80 4 4 4 4 2 1 12 4 4 2 3 1 520 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 80 160 220 1200 320 520 80 960 200 400 200 600 0

Flight Log Transfer Total Present Pending Applications Real Time Maintenance Information Graphical Weather Information Online Trouble Shooting Real Time Weather Reports Telemedicine Technical Log Book Update Cabin Log Book Update Update Electronic Library Software Loading Total Pending Total Current and Pending Total Up-Down Link Asymetric Traffic) (90 %

100

0 600

200 5060

50 2000 500 80 4000 400 400 4000 4000

6 4 5 12 1 1 1 1 1

0 0 0 0 0 400 400 4000 4000 8800

300 8000 2500 960 4000 0 0 0 0 15760

9400 10.340

15.760 17.336