3 FSMP WGF32 WP15 INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION WORKING

3 FSMP WGF32 WP15 INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION WORKING
3 FSMP WGF32 WP22 INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION WORKING
5 INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION WORKING PAPER FSMPWGF32WP16 FREQUENCY




What is an Aeronautical Safety Service? (rev1)

3


FSMP WG-F/32 WP-15


3 FSMP WGF32 WP15 INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION WORKING

3 FSMP WGF32 WP15 INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION WORKING

International Civil Aviation Organization


WORKING PAPER

FSMP (ACP-WGW/32

WP-15rev1

2015-02-19




32nd Meeting of Working Group F

of the Frequency Spectrum Management Panel (FSMP)

(formerly of the Aeronautical Communications Panel)


(FSMP WG-F/32)


(Cairo, Egypt February 18-24, 2015)


Agenda Item 9

Any Other Business



What is an Aeronautical Safety Service?


(Presented by John Mettrop)



SUMMARY

This paper investigates, in the light of growing claims within the ITU by other sectors of being a safety service what aviation would regard as a safety service.

ACTION

WG-F is invited to:-

  • Agree on the proposed interpretation of what a safety service is from an aeronautical perspective.

.



  1. INTRODUCTION

    1. The ITU define in Article 1 of the Radio Regulations that a safety service “is any radiocommunication service used permanently or temporarily for the safeguarding of human life and property”. The Radio Regulations also prescribe additional provisions, such as 1.169 & 4.10 that further define the protection of a safety service from interference from other systems.

    2. Article 4.9 states that “No provision of these Regulations prevents the use by a station in distress, or by a station providing assistance to it, of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to attract attention, make known the condition and location of the station in distress, and obtain or provide assistance”.

    3. Radionavigation whilst not explicitly defined as a safety service, it is implicitly identified within the Radio Regulations as a safety service. The aeronautical mobile (route) and aeronautical mobile satellite (route) services are commonly understood to be safety services.

  2. discussion

    1. There has been a growing trend within spectrum fora for various other industry sectors to make claims about their system being a safety service. Recent examples include the meteorological service claiming that their radiolocation radar is a safety service because they are used to detect adverse weather conditions, broadcast as they relay danger warnings of an approaching tornado or tsunami and the mobile because a mobile phone can be used to call for an emergency service. The result of this definition creep is that it degrades the value associated with aeronautical mobile & mobile satellite route as well as aeronautical radionavigation services.

    2. Looking at the ITU definition of a safety service then it could be argued that all of the examples given in the previous paragraph are cases of safety services. However I would suggest each of those examples are generally not safety services and even when they are used temporarily to convey a safety related message then that is more an emergencya distress situation and hence under Article 4.9 of the Radio Regulations you can use any means available rather than an example of a safety service. If aviation is to push back on this definition creep then we need to understand what we understand by a safety service or as we would more commonly refer to it as a safety of life service.

    3. From my perspective Radiocommunication services are used for various levels of safety. Those range from a routine phone call or TV broadcast through, for instance, radio altimeters which are used to ensure safe separation of an aircraft from terrain or man-made structures to a call for an ambulance because someone has been involved in a car accident and has life threatening injuries.

    4. The question mark in my mind is the reference to temporary in the ITU definition of a safety service. Does temporary mean during a one off call or a series of broadcasts about a single event or does it mean a service that maybe for a temporary period of time main function is ensuring the safety of human life or property. I would suggest that that in those infrequent one-off situations then this is more akin to an emergencya distress situation where you may use any means of communication at your disposal. On the other hand where a service is used for a period of time, where that time period is measured in days weeks or months, routinely to protect human life or property then I would suggest this is a safety service with a higher emphasis on the protection of life.

    5. So how should this be interpreted in an aeronautical situation? From my perspective I would suggest that an aeronautical safety system is one whose main function is either as a part of an overall system that or in isolation helps ensure the safe separation of an aircraft from other aircraft, terrain, man-made structures or adverse weather that could endanger the safe progress of that flight.

    6. Applying this interpretation would therefore include:-

It would not include communication systems when they are used for the provision of services such as air ground, aerodrome surface or operational control (as used in the European Frequency Management Manual) where safety of life is considered to not be part of the service1.

    1. It is therefore proposed that the following interpretation of a safety service is adopted by the FSMP and included in the relevant section of the ICAO Handbook during the next update:-

an aeronautical safety system is one whose main function is either as a part of an overall system that or in isolation helps ensure the safe separation of an aircraft from other aircraft, terrain, man-made structures or adverse weather that could endanger the safe progress of that flight”

  1. ACTION BY THE MEETING

    1. The FSMP is invited to adopt the above interpretation of an aeronautical safety service and include it in the relevant section of the ICAO Handbook during the next update





1 It should be noted that these services do not meet the ITU definition of an aeronautical mobile (route) service however it is convenient to accommodate such applications in the aeronautical mobile (route) service allocation in the VHF frequency band as it reduces aircraft equipage.






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