International Civil Aviation Organization
WORKING PAPER |
|
AERONAUTICAL COMMUNICATIONS PANEL (ACP)
Second Meeting of the AeroMACS Working Group
Montreal, Canada 23-26 October 2012
TITLE
Further AeroMACS Operations Concept Improvement
This paper suggests an improvement to the Operations Concept paper develop by a sub-group of the AeroMACS Working group. The proposed changes focus on the interaction between AeroMACS and the other communications media available on the aerodrome surface. It goes further to re-allocate material originally intended for SARPS to be placed in Guidance Material along with a review of requirements given in the draft SARPS. |
ACTION |
The AeroMACS Working Group is invited to consider using the included material as an aid in the development of the ICAO AeroMACS Operations Concept paper for AeroMACS. |
On the aerodrome surface, multiple communication media will be available to aircraft. Today, VDL Mode-2 and/or (VHF) ACARS along with satellite communications are available for CPCLC. The addition of AeroMACS provides aircraft with up to three different media to support ATC communications.
The existence of multiple media means that availability and reliability requirements can be defrayed across multiple media, as each media provides a potential backup to the others. This therefore calls for a review of the availability requirement given in the draft SARPS.
Each of the available links have different throughput and latency capabilities and hence the overlaying ATN Router will needed to implement a given routing policy to ensure that the appropriate traffic is routed over each media during particular stages of flight. Additional material to this effect is proposed for the concept of operations to be included in the guidance material or technical manual.
Suggested CHanges
Section 2.2 of the draft SARPS provides background information and a context for AeroMACS operations. This material represents guidance material and should be inserted into Technical Manuals or Guidance Material.
It is further proposed that a review of the performance requirements be done taking into account the RCP of the various ATC Datalink Services and the existence of parallel media links. The reader is reminded that today CPDLC will not be supported without wither VDL Mode-2 or ACARS. Furthermore implementing rules in Europe and the US will make VDL Mode-2 carriage mandatory in the future.
It is proposed that the following text be included following Section 3.1 of the proposed concept of operations:
Aircraft will have various media available to support ATC datalink communications. In the near and medium term environments, the options for ATC datalink communications will be as follows:
Environment |
Available Media |
Near-Term |
ACARS (FANS-1/A) |
VDL Mode-2 (ACARS based) |
|
VDL Mode-S (ATN/OSI based) |
|
Satellite (ACARS based) |
|
AeroMACS (ATN/IPS based) |
|
Medium-Term |
VDL Mode-2 (ATN/OSI based) |
Satellite (ATN/IPS based) |
|
AeroMACS (ATN/IPS based) |
Table 1
Of these media, all but AeroMACS are highly bandwidth and throughput limited. This limits them to ATC and AOC services related to the safety and regularity of flight, supporting only the services given in the following table:
Airport Surface Communication Type |
|
Application |
Carriage on Bandwidth/Throughput Limited Media |
ADS-B |
no |
ADS-C |
yes |
Airport Surface Map |
No |
CM |
Yes |
CPDLC |
Yes |
D-FIS (includes OTIS, ATIS, NOTAM, VOLMET, AIB,METAR, TAF, SIGMET, RVR, HZWX) |
Some |
EFB Application updates |
No |
Flight Plan |
Yes |
Ground/Ground links (e.g. MultiLateration GSs, ADS-B GSs) |
No |
Load Sheet |
Yes |
Log Book(s) transfer |
No |
OOOI |
Yes |
SWIM |
No |
TIS |
No |
Vehicle ADS (non-movement area) |
No |
VOIP |
No |
Weather (graphical or textual) |
Some (limited) |
AeroMACS with its broadband capability will allow the introduction of various FIS datalink services however as shown above these cannot be carried over the bandwidth/throughput limited media. Control over the choice of communications media will be exercised by the underlying ATN Routers. This therefore means that ground and air-based ATN routers must implement the following routing policy:
Scenario |
Service/Media |
Priority in Order |
AeroMACS Available |
All services carried over AeroMACS |
Critical ATC communications |
Communications related to safety and regularity of flight |
||
Flight Information Services |
||
Others |
||
AeroMACS Not Available |
VHF Media |
Critical ATC communications |
Communications related to safety and regularity of flight |
||
Satellite Media |
Critical ATC communications if RCP supported |
|
Communications related to safety and regularity of flight |
ACTION BY THE MEETING
The AeroMACS Working Group is invited to:
Place Section 2.2 of the draft SARPS in the Guidance Material or Technical Manual
Review the performance requirements for AeroMACS based on the RCP of the various communications services.
In the guidance material or technical manual include the proposed text on the interaction between the various communication media available.
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