Page 11 - ITU-T Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring – Avionics and Aviation Communications Systems

ITU-T Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring – Avionics and Aviation
Communications Systems

1. Executive summary

In accordance with the terms of reference of FG AC Working Group 4, this Report examines the
feasibility of using recent developments in commercial broadband services, as well as reusing existing
infrastructure, for real-time flight data streaming where appropriate.

There are a number of current and future infrastructure components and data link services which
will satisfy the objectives of the global aeronautical distress and safety system (GADSS). These are
examined in detail in this Report.

2. Background and context

The global aviation community in its quest for continuous and sustainable safety of air navigation
shortly after the Malaysia Airline MH 370 disappearance at the behest of the Government of Malaysia
held an Expert Dialogue Meeting in Kuala Lumpur that culminated in the setting up of the Focus Group
on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring (FG AC) by the International
Telecommunication Union.

Based on the above, the FG AC held its first meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1-3 December 2014,
during which four sub-working groups were established. Since then, four other meetings were held:
February 2015 in Montreal, Canada (ICAO HQ), May 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland (ITU HQ), August
2015 in Los Angeles, USA (Teledyne Controls), and December 2015 in Frankfurt, Germany (Deutsche
Lufthansa HQ).

The terms of reference of Working Group 4 (WG4):

"The deliverable examines the feasibility of using recent developments in commercial broadband
services, as well as reusing existing infrastructure, for real-time flight data streaming where
appropriate."
The following input contributions were received for Deliverable 4:

i) AC-I-018 – Implementation considerations for real-time flight data monitoring by Teledyne
Controls, United States.
ii) AC-I-017 – Broadband services for flight data monitoring by Inmarsat, United King-dom.
iii) AC-I-013 – Input to Deliverable 4 by Intelsat, Luxembourg.

iv) SITA Aviation Cloud
v) Further to the above, additional inputs have come from group members, ICAO, ITU, and RTCA SC
–206 DO-349 Appendix C published in 2014, groups, and during plenary sessions and meetings
as well as other stakeholders.
This Report is based on inputs received from FG AC participants.

The following were areas of focus in this work:

• Ground-based infrastructure;
• On-board information systems infrastructure; and

• On-board data links infrastructure.
Other considerations were capability limitations, cybersecurity and International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs).

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