AERONAUTICAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK PANEL



AERONAUTICAL COMMUNICATIONS PANEL

WORKING GROUP “N” Networking

System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) Concept in the ATN Architecture

Presented by Leon Sayadian

Prepared by Leon Sayadian (USA)

Eric Weill (USA)

November 2003

Introduction

1 Background

Eurocontrol initially presented the SWIM System concept to the FAA in 1997. The AMCP published a paper introducing the SWIM concept in February 2000 at the third meeting of the Working Group of the Whole in Melbourne, Australia [1]. This conceit was formally presented by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation to - and accepted by - the ICAO and World Meteorological Organizations (WMO) at their Montreal conference in September 2002 [2]. RTCA elaborated on SWIM objectives in their 2002 NAS Concept of Operations documents [3]. Subsequently, the FAA published the NAS Wide Information System (NWIS) Concept of Use, which included more refined NWIS/SWIM objectives [4]. The FAA continues to pursue the SWIM initiative in collaboration with US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US Department of Defense (DoD), and the Boeing Company. The tentative plan for deployment is in three phases, by the end of years 2009, 2012, and 2015, respectively.

Eurocontrol has also pursued the SWIM initiative in the air-ground domain under the TALIS project, currently scheduled for completion by February 2004 [8]. The International Transport Association (IATA) has also presented a position paper on the SWIM concept for ATM [9].

2 Scope

This paper discusses the SWIM concept for the global management of ATM information storage, access, and exchange with modern, standardized technology. Similarities between SWIM and ATN objectives and schema will be shown, establishing a case for the incorporation of SWIM constructs that address ATN limitations regarding scalability, flexibility, and interoperability. Specifics of ATM applications and their processes (e.g., weather, surveillance, navigation, airspace, traffic, flow, management, and separation processing) will not be elaborated upon in this paper beyond their conceptual interfaces to SWIM services.

References

|1 |ATMCP-WG/WHL/32-WP/51, 2/16/00 |Information Management: An Overall Approach |

|2 |ICAO/WMO MET/02-IP/40 CAeM-XII/INF.40, 9/9/02|Abstract of the Eurocontrol ATM Strategy for the years 2000+ Information Management |

| | |Requirements |

|3 |RTCA Select Committee for Free Flight, Fall |National Airspace System Concept of Operations and Vision for the Future of Aviation |

| |2002 | |

|4 |FAA/NASA/Boeing, 8/29/03 |Concept of Use for Global Communications, Navigation and Surveillance System (GCNSS) |

|5 |ICAO Doc 9705, 3rd Edition: 2002 |Manual of Technical Provisions for the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN) |

|6 |ICAO AN-WP/7820: 28/2/03 |Review of the AMCP/8 Meeting on Agenda Item 7 (Future Work) |

|7 |ICAO AN-WP/7809: 2003 |Approval of an Executive Summary for a New Task and of the Establishment of a New |

| | |Study Group |

|8 | |TALIS: Total Information Sharing for Pilot Situational Awareness Enhanced by |

| | |Intelligent Systems |

|9 |IATA, AI1, Rev 5, 5/6/03 |Position Paper: Operational Concept and the Need for an ATM Global Implementation |

| | |Roadmap |

Assumptions

• The ATN architecture will migrate to TCP/UDP/IPv6 protocols, which maps to the SWIM architecture [6, 7].

• Canonical ATN end system naming and addressing will be mapped to the IPv6 schema, in conformance with SWIM objectives

• Application information exchange language must comply with eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to conform to SWIM requirements

• Enterprise management must be enabled with SNMPv3, as per the SWIM architecture

• Security services must include IPSec, PKI and either Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS)

• The ATN infrastructure will adopt the Common Information Network (CIN) network of networks concept, with associated communications and data management functions, to provide a high level of integration among the constituent sub-networks [4].

Discussion

The current ATN architecture is a framework for deploying global ATM applications, communications, system management, directory, security, and registration services [5]. SWIM is a newer initiative (see Figure 1), which was conceived to address the technical, operational, and technical shortcomings of the legacy Air Navigation System and its subsystems [1].

Specifically, lack of integration, interoperability, and availability of ATM information has hindered efficient planning and operational decision making for civil aviation. Disparate ATM system development efforts resulted in costly and redundant implementations, often resulting in failures to deploy. Deployed systems have not been designed to coordinate with legacy applications, which impacts overall management of security, configuration, and other system parameters to achieve ATM mission goals. Additionally, the current ATN infrastructure is based upon outmoded communication mechanisms (e.g., X.25), which have limited bandwidth and vanishing vendor support.

With the advent of SWIM, information sharing and collaborative decision-making will be enabled with standardized interfaces to common data repositories and communication channels. This infrastructure will be scalable and adaptable to address future demands of global ATM.

Elements of SWIM will include:

( G-G and A-G communications (voice and data)

( Common Information Presentation

( Common Airspace Environment Database

( Integrated Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) and Aviation Meteorological Services (i.e., MET)

( Dynamic revision of AIS and MET information to aircraft in flight

( Data management functions that enable collaborative work spaces, multi-level security and access, and an active publish/subscribe paradigm for data access and information assurance

ATN and SWIM share similar objectives, with the following enhancements:

( SWIM supports operational and administrative applications, whereas ATN focuses primarily on operational mission (see Figure 2)

( ATN was built upon a client-server model that required specification of ATN-compliant communication stacks, whereas SWIM assumes that applications bundle standardized TCP/UDP/IP communication stacks, which also enables high-speed broadband media (e.g., SONET)

( SWIM supports multi-cast, broadcast, and mobile (e.g., satellite link) modes

( SWIM is based upon an open, standards-based system architecture that accommodates and manages new and legacy communication media and applications in a holistic framework

Recommendation

ICAO/ACP Working Group N should study the SWIM initiative and its progress among its various implementers (e.g., US SWIM, Euro TALIS, and IATA). The focus of this tasking should be a serious consideration towards adopting the SWIM approach for enhancing the ATN future architecture in support of integrating legacy and enhanced services with stakeholders. Implementation of SWIM offers a comprehensive, flexible, timely, interoperable, secure, and modernized approach for unified management and dissemination of vital information that will enable globally harmonious ATM.

Abbreviation

A/G Air-Ground

AIS Aeronautical Information Services

ATM Air Traffic Management

ATN Aeronautical Telecommunication Network

CIN Common Information Network

DoD Department of Defense

G/G Ground-Ground

IATA International Air Transport Association

ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization

IEFT Internet Engineering Task Force

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6

ISO International Standards for Organization

MET METeorological services

NAS National Air Space

NASA National Aeronautic and Space Administration

Nav Navigation

NWIS NAS Wide Information System

OSI Open System Interconnection

PKI Public Key Infrastructure

QoS Quality of Services

RFC Request for Comments

SNMPv3 Simple Network Management version 3

SONET Synchronous Optical Network

SSL Secure Socket Layer

Surv Surveillance

SWIM System Wide Information Management

TCP Transmission Control Protocol

TLS Transport Layer Security

UDP User Data-gram Protocol

Wx Weather

XML eXtensible Markup Language

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SUMMARY

This paper introduces the SWIM concept for global ATM, discusses how SWIM incorporates many objectives and constructs with the ATN, and proposes that the future Working Group N tasking include convergence with the SWIM approach for global ATM information exchange.

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