3. Introduction
3
ATC Full Datalink project is a
demonstration project of the
SJU that performed a certain
number of flight trials, with
commercial aircraft,
controlled in UK and Italian
Airspace, using the datalink
as primary means of
communication for almost all
phases of flight.
4. Outlook of Plan
Phase 1
• October 2012 – February 2013
• Operational and technical feasibility study
• Two role gaming sessions
Phase 2
• March – July 2013
• Setup of ATN over PENS communication infrastructure
• Setup of AFD platform
• Communication End‐to‐End test between AFD platform and Airbus/Boeing Test Bench
Phase 3
• August – December 2013
• Setup of Shared Virtual Sky server/client
• Setup of AFD platform, able to receive flight track from SVS wrapper
• Airbus Simulated flight conducted by real pilots and controlled by ATCOs
• New release of AFD platform, adding RTA capability
Phase 4
• December 2013 – January 2014
• Operational procedures
• Feedbacks and conclusions
• Safety assessment
• Human Factor methodology
EXE
• February– June 2014
• Execution of AFD Flight Trials
4
5. Experimental Phase 1
• Operational and Technical feasibility study
• Role gaming sessions
• Initial safety assessment
• Start to design operational procedures for flight trials
5
7. Experimental Phase 2 ‐ Output
7
AFD platform was correctly
managing loggin phase and
CPDLC exchange of
messages;
Airbus Test Bench was
correctly managing loggin
phase and CPDLC exchange
of messages;
SITA PENS network was
correcly rerouting datalink
instructions, realizing an ATN
over PENS network;
A first test of SVS gave us
confidence of a success
result of phase 3
8. Experimental Phase 3 – Step 1‐ 2
8
AFD platform was connected with the Airbus
Cockpit Simulator, using Shared Virtual Sky
software for the airplane track and real VDL2
channel for comms.
in the OPS room of Rome ACC, the EXE ATCO
will control a real flight as usual, with voice as
primary means of communication.
in the simulation room, where AFD platform is
located, a simulated flight will act as a ghost of
the target flight.
Supervisor OPS will repeat on the phone to
the AFD Supervisor and AFD ATCO those
instructions that are referred to the target flight
AFD ATCO will send the above instructions via
datalink to the simulated flight.
The pilot of Airbus Cockpit Simulator will react
accordingly and the behavior of simulated flight
will be very similar to the real flight.
RTA messages used for test
9. Experimental Phases 4
• AFD ground platform capable to communicate the full set of messages with
both Airbus and Boeing aircrafts, equipped with different avionics models;
• ATCOs and Pilots increases their level of confidence on such new way of
communication, developing together the AFD operational procedures for the
conduction of flight trials;
• A complete Safety Assessment has been developed, needed also for the NSA
autorization;
• Human Factor methodology for Airborne and Ground segments has been
structured, with the help of online questionnaires;
• Technical procedures has been designed, in order to track the behaviour of
datalink communications on both application and communication layers.
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11. Experimental Phases – Differences in interpretation
of ED‐110B Standard
Field Local System NSEL and TSEL is composed by different parts of the ATN
NSAP address:
• LOC (2 octets)
• SYS (6 octets)
• NSEL (1 octets)
• TSEL (1 or 2 octets)
Being TSEL either 10 or 11 can create different interpretations.
In having ground and airborne systems using a different number of octets
(10 or 11) poses the concrete risk (more than a risk) of non‐communication
between ground and airborne systems.
Therefore we think it would be useful to address this issue considering that,
based on ENAV experience, this could be solved in having the ground
system verifying the parameters and adapt itself consequently.
General statement: too many optional fields complicate the certainty to
have a ground platform able to communicate with all models of avionics.
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12. Experimental Phases – Lesson learnt
12
• Due to some room of interpretation on standards,
ground system needs to be tested with as many
avionic models as possible, possibly using real
aircrafts (this allow to test VDL2 GS as well);
• ATCOs and Pilots familiarization sessions helped
to reduce a general diffidence that surrounds
«the datalink» .
23. AFD/ENAV COM Network behaviour
23
The COM Network performed very well and no PAs due to it were
registered
~13 seconds, with some cases of ~5 seconds to close CPDLC loop (from
the click on the HMI to the reception of the WILCO)
Round‐Trip Delay < 3 sec @ 95%
During Flight Trials Campaign the network worked also for AoA and
PoA at the same time.
In numbers (Jan‐Apr 2014):
Total Managed Aircraft
133.9K (VDLM2 circuits)
Total AOA traffic exchanged
34.7 MByte (only payloads)
Total POA traffic exchanged
106.1 MByte (only payloads)
0
10
20
30
40
50
jan feb mar apr
ARINC ACARS (Mbyte)
AOA
POA
25. Perceived workload impact on AFD operation
25
Using CPDLC, ATCOs report that the effort
request to manage the air/ground
communications is slightly higher that in r/t
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Number of Responses
Controller Assessment of Workload
Lo
w
High
No ATCOs indicated a level of workload that
would impact their primary ATM task. More
than half indicated they had enough spare
capacity for all desirable additional tasks.
ENAV NATS
Pilots
19 out of 32 respondents indicated a reduced
level of workload, whereas for the remaining the
workload was slightly higher or higher.
26. Acceptability of CPDLC below FL 285 (ENAV)
26
300 300 300 310
195
345
200
150
285
340
280 280
0
100
200
300
400
Minimum Flight Level where CPDLC could
be applied?
ATCOs FEEDBACK:
AFD is perceived as less suitable in the
approach phase (both before landing or after
take‐off) due to the working methods of this
area (e.g. frantic flow of instructions, number
for restrictions and airspace complexity) , plus
because of some technical issues faced with
the ATM platform, not ready for the operations
yet, that was not providing to ATCOs the
expected level of reliability
28. Acceptability of CPDLC below FL 285 (Pilots)
28
The majority of the pilots perceive the use of CPDLC acceptable. Few pilots do
somewhat disagree on CPDLC acceptability for such operational situations, and two
pilots disagreed.
The major perceived benefit of CPDLC communication below FL285 compared to RT
is the clarity of the message set (n=28 out of 32), followed by availability of message
set and easy integration with pilot’s tasks (n=13 each), ATC responsiveness (n=10),
Time available for message management (n=6) and other benefits (n=3).
31. AFD Reccomandations ‐ Pilots
• VHF Data Link Ground Station /avionic investigations are needed in order
to identify explained technical issues
• Support the Multi frequency trial to validate if the new VDL plus Airbus
ATSU upgrade (permits multi‐frequency) could give a contribution to
improve reliability to acceptable level
• ATN B2 timeout changes should be investigated more thoroughly to
address the controller / Pilot anxiety about the current logical
acknowledgement (ACK) timer with B1 up to 2 minutes.
• Procedures among the various airspaces of the European countries must
be harmonized to provide the flight crew with seamless procedures all
over Europe. For instance, the logon time interval (45' to 15' before take‐
off or when entering the airspace?), the message set, the altitude used as
a floor for CPDLC, and even the designation of the system should be
consistent whenever it is possible in the various countries of the European
airspace.
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32. AFD Reccomandations ‐ ATCOs
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• R1: Test the system with experimental flight legs
should last more
• R2: Test the system with more that one flight
connected by CPDLC (at list 5 a/c)
• R3: Test the system across more complex
sectors/scenarios (e.g. MI sectors and higher traffic
load)
• R4: Test the system increasing the number of
instructions exchanges between ATCO and FC
