The EUROCAE Council on 23. April 2023 has approved the creation of this new activity. In line with the approved Terms of Reference (ToR) WG-126 is tasked to develop the following documents:
OSED (Operational Services and Environment Definition) for ATC Systems – VCS Interoperability for ATM Information Exchange ATC Systems-VCS Interoperability Standard for ATM Information Exchange
Problem Description:
Today, Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) use an air situation display to identify and locate the aircraft under their control. For communication purposes, they are given access to a Voice Communication Switching system (VCS) by means of a panel through which they can e.g. select the frequency they intend to use to talk to pilots and initiate/terminate telephone calls to other ATCOs.
Although ATC and VCS Systems are intended to be working together (the one defining the three-dimensional position of an aircraft in the airspace, the other allowing communication to pilots), there is today no standard integration between them.
A standard in this area would be very beneficial because it provides large benefits to ATCOs that would get greater situational awareness and would have their work eased, thus contributing to lowering their workload and increasing the overall flight safety. It would also benefit the Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) by defining a standardised catalogue of functions and applications that increase the interaction between these systems and reduce the workload of ATCOs.
Scope of the Activity:
The new Working Group has been tasked to develop a concise description of the operational scenarios where ATC and VCS Systems may be sharing flight information and the identification of all information elements they may exchange to provide ATCOs with a more integrated platform, capable of enhancing their capability of proactively managing the air traffic they are responsible for.
The new Working Group will also define the communication interface between ATC and VCS Systems for information sharing.
In order to also consider human factors, inputs from ATCO organisations and safety regulatory bodies is explicitly requested.
Approach:
Working Group 126 will firstly identify and describe the operational scenarios where integration and exchange of information between ATC and VCS systems could be beneficial to ATCOs (the OSED) and then deliver a new interoperability communication standard for ensuring information exchange between such systems, regardless of their respective vendors (the INTEROP).
The new standards are not aimed at the description of how a given information is obtained by the ATC and/or VCS systems, but rather at the identification of which information elements are of interest and how to share them.
As an example, when ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) is mentioned, the Speech-to-Text technology used is out of scope of the present Working Group. What is of interest for the new Standards is which information can be made available by ASR and how to model, share and transfer it.
The Kick-Off Meeting for WG-126 is scheduled for 04. July 2023 at the EUROCAE Offices in Saint Denis.
If your company is interested in a contribution to these activities, please complete the Registration form available here: form.typeform.com
This Call for Participation will close on 16 June 2023!