What s Happening in Iceland & the North Atlantic

Transcription

1 ATN September 2004, IEE London, UK What s Happening in Iceland & the North Atlantic Loftur E. Jónasson Division Manager, Information Technologies Gannet ATS COM

2 New Company providing core services Iceland Radio is now part of Gannet ATS COM a private Telecommunications company, owned by the Icelandic CAA Gannet ATS COM runs Air/Ground and Ground/Ground COM services for the ICAA VHF Voice HF Voice AFTN/CIDIN Ground/Ground Telecomms links

3 Cooperation with ARINC Iceland Radio has provided VHF ACARS services for many years as a part of the ARINC network GANNET ATS COM operates 7 VHF ACARS stations 2 in The Faeroe Islands 2 in Iceland 3 in Greenland The ACARS stations are upgradeable to VDL Mode 2 * * * * * *

4 HF Data Link in Iceland Iceland participated actively in the standardisation of HF Data Link Iceland Radio runs one of the HFDL stations in the ARINC Global HFDL service HF Data Link is particularly desireable in the Iceland FIR because our area of responsibility includes the Polar Routes which have no other means of Data Link Communications. Approximately 7% of flights through the Iceland FIR go north of 75 North We have also found that although it may be difficult to maintain voice contact in adverse conditions towards the North Pole, HFDL continues to be reliable There have been issues against using HFDL for ATS communications as the 95% delivery time is 3-4 minutes (20 30 seconds for VHF ACARS and SATCOM), but this is surely better than no communications at all

5 The Reykjavík Control Area

6 # of Aircraft through the Iceland FIR/CTA per Year Traffic increase in 2004 based on traffic in the first 7 months of the year, compared with the same months in 2003 (8.3% up).

7 # of Messages handled by Iceland Radio per Year HF GP VHF TOTAL Traffic increase in 2004 based on traffic in the first 7 months of the year, compared with the same months in 2003 (8.3% up).

8 ADS-C in the Iceland CTA ADS-C through Fans 1/A became operational in the Reykjavík CTA in August Actual percentage of ADS aircraft flying through the Reykjavík Control Area is now 24% (january through may 2004) It has been found that Voice contacts handled by Iceland Radio for ADS equipped aircraft are almost 30% fewer than those handled for non equipped At the same time, it has also been found that there has not been a corresponding impact on the average number of Voice contacts per flight, when all flights are considered, ADS and non-ads alike (appr. 4,7 msgs per flight) The reasons for this could be manyfold: Less congestion of the network, success rate of a message transaction is higher Year 2000 was by far the busiest year for North Atlantic traffic, resources were close to the maximum capacity Perhaps caused by less Pilot / Radio-Officer / Controller workload as a result of ADS operations, more services, e.g. reroutes are being offered

9 The next step, CPDLC Phase 1 Flight crews use data link to request speed and level changes and receive a response via voice Phase 2 Flights receive VHF domestic frequency assignments via CPDLC Phase 3 Flights receive clearances and responses to clearance requests via CPDLC (completion of Phase 1)

10 The next step, CPDLC Iceland will shortly join it s neighbours Shanwick and Gander in providing service over CPDLC Iceland chose to delay CPDLC in its area for a full integration of CPDLC into the Icelandic FDPS, thus providing the benefits of a seamless environment for the Controllers Phases 1 and 2 are expected to become operational in the Iceland area by the end of October 2004 Phase 3 will become operational in the first half of 2005 Oceanic Clearance Delivery through datalink will become operational in 2005

11 Impact of CPDLC As shown on a previous slide, the voice reduction as a result of ADS-C was close to 30% It is not expected that CPDLC Phases 1 and 2 will have much impact CPDLC Phase 3 however is expected to reduce the need for Voice operations significantly This will reduce or even eliminate the need for an additional family of HF frequencies for North Atlantic Voice operations as traffic grows, and even make it possible to start downsizing those services. This however relies on the number of Aircraft equipped and the expected growth in traffic.

12 The logical next step It is clear that the need for Aeronautical Voice services will be declining It is therefore logical to plan ahead for this and join resources between stations to ensure that this happens in a safe and cost effective manner. The Irish Aviation Authority and the Icelandic Civil Aviation Administration have signed a MOU on cooperation for Voice Radio Operations in the Shanwick Area and the Iceland Area.

13 North Atlantic Radio Stations ARCTIC ICELAND BODÖ GANDER SHANWICK NEW YORK SANTA MARIA

14 Concept of Iceland Radio/Shanwick Radio Cooperation Iceland Radio & Shanwick Radio would be joint service providers The boundary between the two areas 61N would be transparent to users (pilots) for communications purposes There would be an efficiency of workload by a division of NAT Tracks or HF Family frequencies on a daily basis Flexible Frequency Assignments which would enble both stations to provide better service to customers

15 Expected Benefits of the Area Of Cooperation Better Traffic Distribution between stations Less HF Frequency Congestion Better Distribution Of Workload On Aeronautical Radio Operators Improved Service To Customers (Pilots/Airlines/ACCs) Staff Savings No Need To Hire Or Replace Staff Optimised Use Of All Existing Equipment Shared Training Acquisition of equipment

16 How will Iceland Radio and Shanwick Radio Work Together In todays operations, both stations have to man for peak traffic days, which are largely governed by the where the NAT Tracks are on that particular day. This is inefficient, as a peak day for one station is a slow day for the other In this new mode of operation, the workload will be shared more economically than is done today This will be accomplished by utilising a dynamic boundary (changed daily) between the two centres, based on the NAT Tracks, evening out the workload between them

17 How will it work for the Radio Operators? Each operator in both centres may access any flight related information received by either centre Each operator in both centres may handle any unhandled message for the joint area, regardless of which centre the corresponding flight has been assigned to An incoming unhandled message is automatically assigned to one of the centres. Once the message has been assigned to a centre, it will be clearly visible to which centre the message belongs to Any unhandled message or flight may be transferred between the two centres

18 How will this affect Shanwick Control and Reykjavík Control? It will not, it will be totally transparent to the Control Centres: A message sent by Shanwick Control to Shanwick Radio will be propagated to Iceland Radio through the RO-FDS interconnection. If it is handled by Iceland Radio, the corresponding reply will be sent through the Shanwick RO-FDS, formatted correctly for the Shanwick FDPS. A message sent by Reykjavík Control to Iceland Radio will be propagated to Shanwick Radio through the RO-FDS interconnection. If it is handled by Shanwick Radio, the corresponding reply will be sent through the Iceland Radio RO- FDS, formatted correctly for the Reykjavík FDPS

19 How Is This Accomplished Both centres will be using the same Radio Operator Flight Data System (RO-FDS) Gufunes (BICC) AFTN Server 1 Terminal 1 Network 1 Network 2 Terminal 2... Terminal 3 A dedicated small bandwidth communication link will be used for synchronization of the two RO-FDS s If the communication link breaks down, boundary flexibility is lost, but nothing else Ballygirreen (EIAA) AFTN Server 2 Server 1 Server 2 Synchronization Module TCP/IP Link Synchronization Module Archived data Terminal 1 Archived data Network 1 Network 2 Terminal 2... Terminal 3

20 Why This Would Work In Today s Market In a market that is becoming more datalink oriented, any new staff would be temporary hires This co-operation would enable both Iceland Radio and Shanwick Radio not to have to train new staff, only to retain them for a short term basis Staff numbers will go down gradually through attrition, rather than through termination. Safety & Redundancy if HF conditions are poor in one area but good in the other the station with good conditions can work the flights and provide a full service without concerns of sovereignty

21 What does the RO-FDS do On the previous slides I mentioned RO-FDS or Radio Operator Flight Data System The RO-FDS is a system that has been used by Iceland Radio since 1990 to exchange and keep track of messages between Aircraft and Controllers This system is currently being updated to a new hardware platform. This work has also made it possible to add in new functionality such as is required for an inter-station link making it possible to tie Radio Stations together. The RO-FDS handles and keeps track of all information related to the flight Previous position reports, clearances, flight-plan, SELCAL code, frequencies assigned to an aircraft A message for a flight appears on a Workstation Queue for the Radio Operator The RO-FDS keeps a flight diary for each flight, containing all information pertinent to the flight in an easily retrievable format. This includes all message interchanges with the flight, flight plan, ADS reports etc...

22 A Screenshot from the new RO-FDS