Helping you understand the technology, integration and advances of aircraft avionics and equipage, Ken Elliott concludes a five-part series on aircraft connectivity, this month with a brief history followed by an insightful look to the future.

Last month we addressed the expanding use of walk-on Personal Electronic Devices (PEDs) on board aircraft, and how they reduce the need for permanently installed equipment. PEDs also allow the user to seamlessly function with the same device and familiarity as experienced on the ground.

While this capability is profound in itself, let us take a step back and look at the wider aspect of future aircraft connectivity.

First, a Short History

Many years ago, I recall a customer requested cabin entertainment that was beyond a cassette deck and cabin speaker(s), the standard at the time. Satisfying his requests was more involved than simply adding essential passenger address (PA) override, or a headset provision at the CEO chair. We had to call in the big guns from the local car audio shop…

The expert they sent had never seen the inside of a Gulfstream II (or even a Cessna 172), but his contribution to our ‘modern’ audio-visual system, with its sub-woofers and multiple input sources, was an eye opener to us seasoned avionic gurus.

Somewhere in the 1990s, cabins became more than airborne passenger-lounges and began to move into zoned, functional workspaces for the busy executive. Technologically inclined and enlightened aircraft owners elevated expectations, and bigger long-range jets provided the capable platform for the new ‘office in the sky’.

Later, our avionics shop made another quantum leap when approached by an aftermarket Gulfstream owner who ran one of America’s leading home entertainment businesses. The owner’s knowledge of system control caused us to pause and reflect on aircraft cabin control in a way that was far beyond the audiovisual. (Meanwhile, and in parallel to our own efforts, avionic suppliers were finding ways to remotely control cabin lights, cabin environment, audio-visual and much more, all from single touch screen armrest controls.)

Aside from the cabin, aircraft connectivity reached to the outside world. Before satellites were available for commercial aviation use, aircraft relied on other means to transmit messages, and in some cases data, across continents and oceans. Aircraft, weighed down with bulky high-frequency communication systems, struggled to make contact and stay on frequency. Selcal (selective calling) enabled enroute air traffic control to stay in touch with aircraft, even when the HF frequency was not being monitored by the pilot. Volmets provided audio weather information as an added feature.

I recall, as an avionics technician, the woes of tuning Sunair HF radios to long wire antennas, enabling aircraft to stay in touch while flying over the endless untapped forests of central Africa.

About the same time as satellite technology was first making its way into aircraft, companies like Aircell (now GoGo) were ‘experimenting’ with analog voice, air to ground, telephone systems. Those early days of aircraft ‘telephones’ were marked by serious hand-off problems related to ground stations and their line of sight relationship to aircraft position and altitude. When Magnastar products entered the market and competition increased, phone and corresponding early data systems multiplied, with increased sophistication and reliability.

A true revolution occurred with the onset of Iridium satellites with their low earth orbits and low ‘by the minute’ call costs, all with seamless hand-off coverage. This allowed Aircell and others to take off in the world of cabin connectivity. Communication was now expanding into digital data, visual and the internet, all in line with developments back in the home and the office.

I was fortunate to be one of the first to install the Iridium broadband and see the excitement of an aircraft operator able to function, like we still do today, in the local coffee shop with our portable devices, at relatively affordable rates (…well, maybe not quite such low cost, so fast or as much data…!)

Some incidental side benefits of the new affordable satellite communication were the ability to receive weather, to share real time aircraft performance and to track the aircraft’s position.

Aircraft Connectivity: A Future Imagined

Step forward, past the present that we have covered over the previous four articles, and join us on a magical journey into tomorrow…

To begin with, the reader must face the long-term reality of widespread autonomous flight, with less use of ‘humans in the loop’ and without reliance on a two or three-person crew, or eventually any pilot onboard. Initially, of course, unmanned will still require a ground pilot, but eventually that need will expire.

As the use of wireless, satellite and air-to-ground technologies expands into the cockpit, the reliance on ‘humans in the loop’ will cautiously fade away, but not without resistance. In essence, the two connectivity advances will merge over time. Also they will merge with a similar transition taking place on the ground and centered on Air Traffic Control.

The Internet of Things (IoT) covers a virtual universe of wireless activity, one part of which is transport and a sub part of transport is aviation. The Internet of Aviation Things (IoAT) is the world of tomorrow for our industry. Because of the limits of data storage at end nodes (such as your aircraft), imagine instead that your aircraft is connected, real time, 24 hours a day, to its own personal cloud. A cloud that streams back and forth all the data it, and the world it connects to, will need.

Our future Cloud may have 4 partitioned areas (Cloud 1, 2, 3 and 4). Let’s deal with each in turn…

Cloud 1: Essential Data (Trajectory)

The aircraft, as a vehicle, can perform without a cloud – especially with on-board pilot(s) – so focus is on the activities of the aircraft once it’s in motion. It needs to know where to go and what is its optimum trajectory along the way. That, for convenience, will be provided by a Predictive Trajectory Cloud. The aircraft’s performance will be dictated by this predictive trajectory.

The predictive information from the cloud mimics 4D Performance Based Navigation (PBN), but includes all aspects of weather and all phases of flight, from taxi-out to taxi-in. It accounts for the flight plan, air traffic control, other aircraft, incidents, NOTAMS, runway conditions, aircraft weight and balance, pilot inputs, and so on.

The flight is time-based, so there will exist a continual loop of data streaming from the aircraft to the cloud regarding its performance, thus the cloud can accurately predict, and then advise the future trajectory back to the aircraft. Aircraft will be projected to arrive at specific 3D sky points at fixed times.

The jewel in the crown of the predictive trajectory will be the avoidance of weather. The IoAT will have enabled, and weather-sensing technologies will have evolved, to allow a subset of predictive weather to the trajectory formula.

The technologies now emerging for seeing the runway surface during all low visibility conditions will ensure VFR-like activity in and around the airport, at all times. Extreme storm, snow and ice weather will be sufficiently predicted to allow a proper assessment of route and trajectory, prior to taxi out. If already enroute, adequate predictions will also provide for a new route and trajectory. Despite what we hear, weather is the most significant disrupter in our national airspaces, and weather prediction still requires significant ‘off-aircraft’ technology innovation.

Cloud 2: Secondary Data (Surveillance)

While the aircraft can perform and project on its trajectory, it still needs to be tracked and monitored. Imagine a cloud that streams the aircraft’s status 24 hours a day, in the air and on the ground.

Tiny RFID-like devices will be embedded throughout the fuselage, monitoring the performance and status of thousands of components. Streaming data will morph into ‘data on demand’ where, autonomously, data will be streamed in either direction, only when demanded. This will free-up valuable bandwidth for even more IoAT functionality.

The aircraft will be tracked along its route, and the cloud will retain all recorded data for any emergency that could arise. Meanwhile, company headquarters, operations and maintenance will all have valuable access, in real time, to the same Tera or even Peta Bytes of data.

Because the surveillance of aircraft performance and component level systems is continuous and deeply diagnostic, maintenance tasks such as RVSM and Pitot Static recertification will take place during every trip, without the need for on-ground validation. Systems such as navigation will be constantly tracked for signal reliability and accuracy at the Cloud 2 level.

Cloud 2 will, in essence, be a virtual aircraft in itself. The existing flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder, emergency locator and other devices, will exist in the cloud and not be physical on-board equipment. Search and Rescue and NTSB personnel will access all the data they need from this ‘live cloud’.

Subject to de-identification, Cloud 2 data will be shared with those who wish to improve airspace efficiency. Branches within the FAA NextGen office, for example, are currently taking that approach; a quick look at the FAA ‘Performance Snapshots’ website will reveal how far they have progressed to date.

The emergence of system-wide performance monitoring and, for operators, the tracking of an aircraft’s annual performance, is about to bloom into a whole new industry, as everyone catches up and realizes the ROI benefits.

As the airspace becomes increasingly populated with unmanned autonomous flight platforms, the need to see and avoid will increase and the ability for conflict being predicted and resolved in the cloud will also be required. Equipment such as TCAS, ADSB and TAWS will disappear as predictions of trajectory take over. The cloud, in concert with other clouds, will have been tracking all the aircraft in the neighborhood.

Furthermore, the cloud will have access to a virtual 3D world updated every hour or so to account for obstacle changes. This ability of the cloud to see and avoid will be built into the final trajectory data, streamed to the aircraft. Hence, the system will provide real-time Collision Avoidance.

Importantly, the Four Clouds will all be connected as one and then in turn, connected to other systems of information. Data such as all aircraft movements, 3D terrain, live weather, live airport and runway conditions, and many other common data streams will be the same and available to all aircraft. This is what we call a virtual airspace, a central place that mimics the real world ‘almost live’ and where all aircraft connect.

Cloud 3: Non-Essential Data

You will be able to walk on your aircraft with your personal device and continue what you were doing on the ground, whatever it may be. Connect your PED to approved on-board resources and discover everything you need to know about the trip.

Conference in to your company’s survey team in the remote islands of Indonesia, then relax with a full length 3D movie played on your virtual reality goggles: Cloud 3 will provide all of this capability, as well as activities we have not yet even imagined.

Pilots, using a plethora of applications, will have the capability to enhance their flight with nondistracting activities. Predictive trajectory options may be explored, useful destination data reviewed, in-flight purchase transactions completed, predictive weather analyzed and airport-runway status reviewed. Non-essential voice, as audio, will be digitized and streamed, as data, in the continuum of system-wide information.

Pilots will conduct real-time telephony over the same data stream, not as separate voice calling. CPDLC and FANS are early steps toward this architecture. Furthermore, through voice recognition technology, pilot communications will be recognized and digitized at the source.

Finally, Cloud 3 will accommodate the demands of social media networking. Today professionals struggle with the role of social networking in the world of business. As we watch the two merging, it becomes apparent that the word ‘social’ no longer implies a casual chat between friends. The whole world is becoming interactive, and the role of social media in aviation operations is still in its infancy.

Cloud 4: Critical Data (Security/Back-Up)

There is no point in the existence of Clouds 1-3 without proper security and privacy. Intertwined, these two aspects of protection will always be considered critical to overall connectivity.

Company operations will determine what is private and needs to be protected—or if shared, de-identified. Sharing will occur at greater frequency, but flight departments will be very cautious and conservative as they move into this area.

Protection from hackers and scammers will continue to grow exponentially, and firewalls of layered protection will grow to isolate critical aircraft systems from any outside interference.

Equally, everything needs to be backed up and partitioned. Cloud 4 will be a semi-permanent virtual aircraft, able to replace any data lost and impossible to be tampered with or damaged. Clouds will back up Clouds to ensure the continuous availability of service, providing the confidence and assurance needed for the IoAT to develop.

Summary

Connectivity, as seamless wireless data, will transform aviation. Far into the future, it will depopulate the aircraft of redundant on-board equipment and eventually make way for unmanned ATC as well as the need for a pilot (or at least as we understand those needs today). Much of the aircraft’s equipment and functionality will be virtual in a cloud, or ‘cloud of clouds’. Smart ‘on demand’ streaming will maximize data use and speeds.

The IoAT will stream so much data in multiple directions to multiple destinations, it will be the equivalent of a permanently connected highway, steering truckloads of packaged data, via hubs and connectors. This creates a virtual aircraft, as well as another virtual back-up aircraft.

The ‘virtual aircraft’ will control the performance and 4D trajectory of the physical aircraft and its payload. The virtual aircraft will host the lifetime memory of the physical aircraft’s experience and allow the instantaneous connectivity of its passengers to their office, home or anywhere else.

Are you looking for more articles on avionics? Visit www.avbuyer.com/articles/category/business-aviation-avionics/

❯ Ken Elliott is a highly-respected industry authority on avionics as a member of the NextGen Advisory Council sub-committee and Technical Director, Avionics at Jetcraft. Contact Ken via ken.elliott@jetcraft.com or www.www.jetcraft.com.

This article was written by Ken Elliott, Jetcraft Avionics – Technical Director, for AvBuyer Magazine. It was published in the May 2016 issue. Click here to view the Digital issue of the May AvBuyer or to view Archived editions.

Helping you understand the technology, integration and advances of aircraft avionics and equipage, Ken Elliott continues a five-part series on aircraft connectivity, this month concluding his review of on-board connectivity.

In the previous article on this subject we reviewed an aircraft’s means of connecting, externally, to the outside world via the use of installed aircraft equipment. In this article we focus on how that same equipment turns its attention to internal connectivity. We cover how information is transferred, converted, interfaced and displayed to both passengers and crew.

Once received via a designated antenna, content is down-converted to video, voice and data. However this information needs further adapting in order to ensure compatibility with onboard devices. Included in this extra step is the need for human interface, allowing the selection of audio and visual components.

Emergence of PEDs

One area of in-cabin connectivity that has been brewing for years, and is now maturing is an ability for passengers to use their personal walk-on devices as a means of utilizing the aircraft’s inflight entertainment and more. We all recall the days when even the largest of business jets relied on a few bulkhead monitors, speakers and headsets.

One monitor always portrayed Airshow and the other relied on Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) input. Now jump forward, past the evolution of in-seat monitors and CD players, to the expectations of today. Envision an aircraft maintaining an option to use aircraft mounted monitors, but a preference to use what you own and are familiar with; the walk-on personal device.

Enabling this capability is not easy as there are Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android to deal with, including different versions thereof. There is also the extent to which you may want to use a Personal Electronic Device (PED), such as an ability to control many of the aircraft cabin features, thereby reducing the need for switches, controls and wiring.

PEDs may connect the passenger into their home-office Virtual Private Network (VPN), allow video conferencing and enable streaming of TV or movies. The range limitation of the information media is set by the capability of the satellite and aircraft satcom, bandwidth and baud rate.

Today, via a satcom service provider, customers may select information speeds from Kilobits per second (Kbps) to multiples of Megabits per second (Mbps). Meanwhile using 4G ‘air to ground’ (ATG) both on the ground and during flights over terrain, bit rates of 2-12 Mbps may soon be expected.

Platforms

Some of the major onboard connectivity providers are:

•Cobham
•Gogo
•Honeywell
•Rockwell Collins*
•Thales
•True North
•VIASAT

*Note the recent acquisition of ICG.

The above connectivity provider platforms can be exotic, covering most aspects of cabin functionality. Aircraft OEMs will typically embrace these integrated platforms and, in collaboration with the equipment supplier provide brand identifiers such as Venue, Ovation or AeroWave. In those cases, the system is usually holistic, extending throughout the cabin, and even reaching into the cockpit with some of its features.

Companies like VIASAT have moved into the aircraft itself, having originated from the satellite end of things. VIASAT’s VIP Inflight Internet includes most of the aircraft equipment required, and the company can also provide both Ku- and Ka-band services on the same aircraft.

Passengers can expect somewhere near 12 Mbps speeds on their individual devices whenever the Kaband is in use, allowing for intensive applications such as teleconferencing or video streaming.

Security, Interference & Vulnerability

Security: Security, via encryption and other means, is essential when using the more accessible connectivity that is available today. Manufacturers are hard at work, continuously improving their protections to stay one step ahead of the hackers and intruders.

Some new onboard routers can automatically alert users when flying in certain airspaces where it is required for data to go via ground stations. This requirement increases the ability of foreign agencies to ‘see’ sensitive information.

Interference: Interference is another concern, where onboard systems must not interfere with primary aircraft operating systems. Integrators of inflight systems are subject to rigorous controls, via the Type Certificate (TC) and Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) process of certification. New systems are flown and aircraft avionics monitored for interference, both from the inflight system to avionics and the other way around.

Vulnerability: It must be understood that increasingly, we are becoming reliant on the use of satellites and they are vulnerable to meddling from unfriendly sources. As with the GPS constellation and its use for Performance Based Navigation (PBN), concerns over reliance on satellite technology for communications and connectivity are valid.

Operators acquiring aircraft that are intended for use over a number of years should include alternative equipment, such as the new SmartSky Networks 4G solution that connects via air to ground (ATG), and not via a satellite, when operating over the US.

It may sound like paranoia but a divided world still exists and a less direct-confrontational means of waging ones battles is becoming more popular. It is not such an unimaginable stretch to move from the current practice of hacking into remote computer servers, to taking control of, or altering the operation of satellites. Few wish to admit or face this daunting possibility.

Presentation

Assuming that we have the downloaded information processed, an aircraft’s inflight system then needs to present to, and interact with, the passengers and crew both visually and aurally.

A plethora of devices and techniques are utilized to this end. More adapting of the audio-visual signals may be found on legacy aircraft than with new machines. Typically, the broader a single manufacturer’s technology reach is across the cabin, the more seamless the integration may actually be. A list of aircraft system and cabin devices that record, adapt, define and convert voice, video and data follows:

• Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR): Network devices
• Flight Data Recorders (FDR): Blue Tooth devices
• Flight Data Acquisition Units (FDAU): Engine trend monitoring units
• Quick Access Recorders (QAR): Bus & signal converters
• Data Adapters: Data Acquisition Units (DAU)
• Terminals: Mechanical adapting devices
• Routers: Signal conditioning units
• USB Ports: Analogue to digital converters
• Configuration Modules: Health & usage monitoring units
• Data Bus Converters: Data devices for flight tracking
• Data Filters: Serial to parallel converters
• Satcom Interface Devices: Cell phone interface devices.

The following list of some of the major suppliers of recording, adapting, defining and converting equipment focuses on those companies that specialize in these fields. Many of the major avionics manufacturers include these processes in their mainline products and systems:

• Cobham (Spirent)
• Teledyne (Avionica)
• Harbert Flight Display Systems (Alto)
• Thales (Astronics)
• DPI (Blue Avionics)
• Lufthansa Technik (DAC International)
• Nexsys (Skylight Avionics)
• Shadin (Satcom Direct).

Note: Many of the Electronic Flight Bag and cabin & cockpit display manufacturers, also produce adapting and converting devices for their own product lines.

Some Interface Considerations

While there are data speeds to consider, also there is bandwidth and the ability of a system to work with multiple devices. Techniques such as data compression can allow more users to benefit from increased available bandwidth.

Another consideration is the ability to connect and remain on line, even though the aircraft is moving. That concern is centered on the antenna gain, the frequency band in use and the system functionality. However, the ability of personal devices to stay connected remotely, via Wi-Fi for example, is another aspect of maintaining a connection.

For some operators, such as those using GlobalVT from Satcom Direct, or Simphone Mobile GSM from True North Corporation, it is possible to use personal mobile phone numbers, and by default personal address books, connecting callers using an onboard router. Satcom Direct users do not incur roaming charges.

More and more the means of interface is becoming Application (App) based. The use of PEDs permits more App-based programs, including ones that control the various cabin systems. Gulfstream has three Apps that interface users with their aircraft:

•Cabin Control allows users to adjust cabin comfort, entertainment and lights.
• PlaneBook permits a paperless cockpit.
• Satellite Voice acts as an SIP-based phone for Apple iOS devices on Gulfstream aircraft, enabling customers to use an in-cabin Wi-Fi Internet connection to make and receive calls with Apple devices.

Aircraft builders are now seeing the advantage of extending the onboard use of PEDs, negating the need for wiring and interface equipment, commonly known to avionic buffs as ‘Happy Boxes’.

There may be multiple satellite or ATG systems operating on a single aircraft, but users wish to use only one handset, or headset. Equally, if there is a complex cabin Inflight Entertainment (IFE) system, consisting of different sub-assemblies, operators want to use a single remote device or have the ability to control all from a single (and personal) PED.

Using a ‘single service set identifier’ (SSID), for a wireless area network (WAN), it is possible to rely on the router to select the most capable and fastest available service. Onboard services can connect outside the aircraft using multiple frequency-band methods such as Ka-, Ku- and L-Bands as well as via air-to-ground.

Newer routers can smartly allocate bandwidths to users, so VIPs may be provided with more and pilots less, bandwidth. These same routers, using SIM cards, can select GSM (3G-4G) services and save costs to the user. When selecting cabin routers, ensure they can auto-select communication services agnostically and not be forced to go to a preferred provider.

Staying with routers, ensure the router that you select can be set to prevent automatic background downloads. This common activity uses up bandwidth and ties up the PED. Most of these updates are not pre-requested and may be downloaded on the ground.

Displays

PEDs aside, there are many ways to display data in an aircraft. For the cockpit, and those aircraft not able to display paperless cockpit information on their primary displays, there are both Multi-Function Displays (MFDs) and Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs). EFBs come in three classifications, depending upon the extent to which each is mounted and then interfaces to the aircraft’s primary systems.

In fact, EFBs must not connect directly to primary aircraft systems, unless the means of installation has been specifically approved, such as with some Class 3 applications. To cover EFBs will take a complete article on its own, but relevant to this article is that EFBs mostly connect via a firewall unit to an aircraft’s avionics systems. An example of this is when EFBs are used to access aircraft performance data.

CMC, a popular supplier of EFBs, uses an Aircraft Information Server (AIS) and apart from its ability to connect for data, it connects to satcoms and Wi-Fi, for weather, tech logs and other pilot applications. The EFB, however, never electronically connects directly to the aircraft systems for this purpose.

For the cabin a designer can be creative, but there is still a need, and desire for, hard mounted displays in cabin bulkheads and discretely stowed monitors in the individual seat armrests.

Also whereas in the past monitors were controlled by a remote controller and external switch-controls, today they are touch screen with a remote option. Some of the more popular display suppliers are:

• Harbert (Flight Display Systems)
• Rosen
• Barco
• Aircraft Cabin Systems
• Spirent
• EFB suppliers – as a separate and large group, providing all classes of EFBs, including ‘Commercial Off The Shelf’ (COTS), as carry-on devices.

Summary

Unseen in our modern aircraft cabin image (Figure 7) are the many connectivity devices, installed behind side walls, under the floor and above the headliner. However, the more we are able to walk onto the aircraft with personal electronic devices, the less there is a need for onboard interface equipment.

Equally the use of hard-mounted handsets and seat displays will decrease. When selecting your cabin and cockpit electronics consider the following:

• Forward-thinking flight departments want data to inform them of the aircraft’s trip performance. They desire an ability to communicate flight and fault data to their maintenance personnel, and directly to equipment manufacturers, for immediate support. They also want the aircraft’s position known, in case of an incident, and they understand it takes additional technology to migrate all these data out of the aircraft in real time.

• Savvy flight departments specify communications and high speed data equipment so it provides the coverage, speeds and bandwidth they and their owners need, at the right rates per minute. This may mean equipping with a combination of Iridium and Swift Broadband, as well as the use of new Air- To-Ground 4G. Pilots, however, do not want to confuse their passengers with multiple user interface devices.

• Knowledgeable, but wise flight departments do their homework on capability and equipage options, while consulting with OEMs and preferred MROs, to ensure their desired selection will actually perform. Operational limitations, nuances of interface and software issues have plagued the industry for many years, but there are reliable and cost effective solutions out there. Wise flight departments do not venture alone.

All of the above concepts and systems involve some form of interaction and human interface inside the aircraft cabin. The purpose of this article was to make readers aware of these internal devices and methods used for voice, video and data, bearing in mind it would take more than a book to fully explain.

Finally remember that whatever you select for equipage, it must be certified on the aircraft, it may be obsolete or morph into another product within a few years and most important of all, it must not take away from an ability to resell the aircraft later.

Are you looking for more articles on avionics? Visit www.avbuyer.com/articles/category/business-aviation-avionics/

❯ Ken Elliott is a highly-respected industry authority on avionics as a member of the NextGen Advisory Council sub-committee and Technical Director, Avionics at Jetcraft. Contact Ken via ken.elliott@jetcraft.com or www.www.jetcraft.com.

This article was written by Ken Elliott, Jetcraft Avionics – Technical Director, for AvBuyer Magazine. It was published in the April 2016 issue. Click here to view the Digital issue of the April AvBuyer or to view Archived editions.

Helping you understand the technology, integration and advances of aircraft avionics and equipage, Ken Elliott continues a five-part series on aircraft connectivity, this month with a review of on-board connectivity.

In last month’s aircraft connectivity article we reviewed providers of communication and data as well as a breakdown of the services they offer. Moving to the aircraft this month, we will see how on-board connectivity is associated with a multitude of external resources, many with minimal pilot intervention. In fact, while the pilot(s) concentrate on flight plan execution, a whole other spectrum of activity may be unfolding between cabin and cockpit systems and the world outside.

Today, a number of flight departments are able to provide a ‘company in the sky’ experience to their corporate teams, enabling minimal interruption to time-critical business activity and all taking place aft of the cockpit door. Meanwhile the pilot(s) can run a real-time travel management and operations business up front, with an aviation department flight attendant also playing an important role.

On the aircraft itself, there are systems that can ‘see’ and select from the broader information traversing the ocean of airspace. These same systems as well as others provide the means of communication to the crew, passengers and directly to aircraft avionics. Some communication components, often as single ‘boxes’, focus on conversion, and others simply display the information provided to them. Part 2 of ‘Connecting on Board’ will concentrate on conversion and display of information within aircraft.

In order to see external information, an aircraft uses antennas tuned to seek out minute signal levels of information carrying waves radiated at different frequencies. These carrier frequencies carry information modulated as voice, data and video. For efficiency, the modulation signals are sometimes compressed and scrambled.

An aircraft may have a significant number of antennas, each looking for and radiating at a specific atmospheric-penetrating frequency. Those that need to communicate with satellites look for, lock on and then track the satellites’ movement, executing exotic hand-offs as the earth rotates below the satellites’ stationary or orbital flight paths. Satellites often perform multiple tasks, one of which may be acting as a transponder. In this manner the satellite receives ground-sourced information, boosts it and then resends amplified signals to aircraft satellite antennas.

Cables within the aircraft route the carrier signal to and from transceivers that access and process the audio, data or video information being transported by its carrier.

Typically airborne systems have a control, processor and an output. The control may be automatic or via human interface. The processor, in essence, is directed to perform its specific function. Then selected and processed information is provided as an output in digital (data), audio or video form

Onboard Information Seeking/ Providing External Information

Weather: For an aircraft, weather is derived several different ways. Instruments using atmospheric probes detect the atmospheric conditions. A weather radar, mounted in the nose, provides real-time precipitation and (by analogy) turbulence, albeit with limited range and field.

Satellites, via Satcom, provide detailed nearterm weather, and ADS-B In provides the same. Sirius/XM, using a dedicated antenna, may also be providing weather. Even stand-alone lightning sensors are installed in some aircraft. Traditionally, and still available, is weather information at airports and elsewhere, provided via VHF and HF.

Satcom, FANS & Data: Primarily focused on oceanic operations, where satellites boost and relay service-provider information, aircraft Satcom serves as the transceiving device for communications and digital data to and from the aircraft.

Future Air Navigation System (FANS) uses the Satcom and includes aircraft surveillance via ADSC. High rates of bi-directional digital data may be transferred between aircraft and the orbiting or geostationary satellites. Passenger and some crew voice communication is also routed through the Satcom.

Companies such as FLYHT Aerospace Solutions, Ltd. offer streaming data capability using their stand-alone onboard AFIRS and ACARS-over- Iridium service. These onboard processors also connect to portable devices used by the flight crew. However, data can be shared via the internet to corporate VPNs. Examples of aircraft and fleet performance data are Health & Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) and Engine Trend Monitoring (ETM).

Streams of real-time aircraft diagnostic and performance data can be sent via the same Satcom used for voice. In fact, we live in the age of the Internet of Things (IoT), where for example, an aircraft on an average flight can now produce performance data measured in Terabytes, (e.g., the new Bombardier C-Series). Transferring all these data, in real time, to the ground becomes ever more an issue of bandwidth, where all the technology involved must have the capacity to handle the volume of information.

Below is additional guidance with respect to Satcom’s satellites, and the frequency of the carrier waves used:

• L-Band uses frequencies between 1 to 2GHz. L-Band provides narrower bandwidth and is used to meet light business jet requirements.
• Ku-Band utilizes approximately 12-18GHz range. The legacy Ku-Band is still widely used and has a medium bandwidth adequate for most applications where data capacity requirements are not so critical.
• Ka-Band services operate between 26.5- 40GHz. Ka-Band is being used by newer satellites and has very high data capacity and transfer rates, due to greater bandwidth.

Broadband: Speaking of bandwidth and the need to connect via the internet, OEMs and operators are equipping their aircraft more and more with dedicated systems that link to broadband services. Viasat, with its high capacity satellites, is just one of the broadband providers. Its use of both Ka- and Ku-Band satellites, along with its aircraft equipment and service plan, provides flexibility and single source accountability for operators.

With broadband capability, operators can easily conduct high-definition video conferences, stream music and video, connect live to their corporate VPNs and do much more while airborne.

VHF & HF Communications/Data: Traditionally and yet still in use, lower frequency transmission activity takes place over land and sea using VHF and HF. Controller Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC) is one current use of data over VHF. For HF this is known as High Frequency Data Link (HFDL). Popular for flight clearances, these legacy technologies will be around for some time to come.

ADS-B Out/In & Transponders: Leaping to the present, bi-directional and automated aircraft flight surveillance data flow between different aircraft and air traffic control facilities. The ADS-B technology includes the use of updated Transponders, Flight Management Systems (FMS) and other onboard equipment to facilitate this capability.

Weather, for display and useful en route flight information, is further provided when aircraft are ADS-B In equipped. For those with Satcom, ADS-C provides for similar ADS-B Out capability in Oceanic regions.

Emergency & Tracking: This is an information area that is truly booming, especially with air carriers and for aircraft operating in remote regions. Emergency equipment has been around for many years, but new to the market is equipment that tracks, monitors and frequently relays the aircraft flight status, for real-time use by a variety of interested parties.

Many traditional service providers, including wellknown names, have added dedicated flight tracking service to their portfolios. Some examples of companies that specialize in flight tracking are; Spidertracks, Skytrac, Flightaware and Blue Sky Network.

Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs), located in the rear of the aircraft and near the tail, are activated by excessive G forces, or may be switched to transmit, manually. Operating at 121.50, 234.00 and 406.00 MHz, they provide aircraft location and identification. 406 MHz ELTs can also provide the aircraft location via internal GPS.

Onboard Information Systems Primarily For Aircraft/Crew

Video & Audio: Once demodulated from the antenna signal by the system processor, video and audio can be distributed across both the cockpit and cabin. Advancements, such as high-definition video and low-noise digital audio, are only limited by the capacity of both external and internal systems to handle bandwidth requirements.

As more automated data information is visually displayed to flight crews, there is less reliance on audio.

Voice & Data Recording: Currently on many business aircraft a history of each flight is being recorded. Today voice and data are combined in single recorders. Flight Data Acquisition Units (FDAUs) collect thousands of data parameters representing the aircraft’s in-flight performance and interfacing those quantities of information to the Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR), as well as Quick Access Recorders (QARs).

QARs speedily access raw flight data and downlink them, via Satcom, to flight departments and operations centers. Sampling and refresh rates of QARs are different than FDRs because, although they are systems using similar technology, they perform different functions.

Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR), designed or upgraded for FANS, need to be data capable to enable the recording of data link and digital messages in flight.

Because these CVRs and FDRs (or CFDRs) are designed for survivability, they include emergency location transmitters. While not operating during flight, beacons on recorders are very much communicating devices when the situation dictates. Deployable DFDRs, equipped with GPS and activated upon deployment, may be located more quickly; even if they cannot be immediately recovered, they will transmit recent flight data, recorded prior to activation.

Wi-Fi: Often Wi-Fi is a subset of a broader Satcom system working with either Inmarsat or Iridium satellites and associated on-board equipment. So either as a subset or a stand-alone system capability, the processor output for Wi-Fi will go to a routing system for the aircraft.

When the aircraft is on the ground, routers may also connect directly to cellular systems, enabling even ground maintenance operations that require connectivity. Routers provide a method for passengers and crews to connect via Wi-Fi and Ethernet for laptops, smartphones, personal electronic devices and electronic flight bags.

Live Communications & Data: As opposed to recording of voice and data, existing radios, ACARS, VHF data link (VDL) or HFDL and the use of Satcom are employed primarily for live communication and transfer of information data.

Several independent systems, each with their own antennas, fulfill this role. Communication and flight management devices are often on dual configuration. Data are transferred between devices, as well as to outside the aircraft. As a reliance on HF slowly fades into the sunset, so may the use of VHF. This is in line with a more automated and direct data (or digitized voice) approach to communications. Of course, as unmanned aircraft migrate into the NAS, communication will become digital and automated, machine to machine.

Crew Information: For crews, there is the need to provide information in a number of different ways. The most immediate form is alerting and advisory information, provided both aurally and visually. Important notifications can originate from outside the aircraft. An example of this will be weather and flight information alerts for the flight plan in use. Crews need to know the status of their systems and be able to react to any abnormal conditions.

Cabin crews and passengers need to connect to the cockpit and visa-versa. The flight crew are able to control to some degree what is shared within the cabin.

Flight departments and others may communicate directly with the crew via messages and voice, while service providers continuously update the trip planning and arrival services.

Flight crews are reliably connected to other aircraft and the ground via today’s cockpit technology. Clearances, passenger plan changes, route amendments, and so much more can be accommodated in the modern connected cockpit.

Other Aircraft Systems: For maintenance personnel and flight crew on the ground, having connectivity enables the downloading of performance data, virtual live troubleshooting by remote field service representatives, uploading of databases and the use of many mobile applications—all being additional and useful tools in the technician’s tool kit.

Systems on board may be connected via modems, USBs or dedicated ports, to portable devices. iPads, Androids and Laptops are used in most flight departments and hangar operations today, reducing downtime, cost and misdiagnosed faults.

Summary

Across the preceding paragraphs, we have outlined the layer of ‘information-platforms’ communicating in and out of the aircraft. Between the information that satellite and ground networks transfer and what is managed for operators by service providers, it is clear there is an ever expanding amount of data going back and forth.

The next article in this series will drill down even further within the aircraft to address onboard services. It will focus on how information is transferred, converted and displayed within both the cabin and the cockpit.

There are different protocols and specialists in this area. Above all there is a lot to consider, because free enterprise and competition have provided us with many choices and, therefore, the potential for many issues.

While a good thing, the expansion of choices opens up opportunities for different technology integrations, each with a unique path and a potential risk of incompatibility.

Equally, aircraft OEMs increasingly favor single avionic suites and branded cabin management systems, presumably safe from these integration risks, secured by their proprietary software networks. As you may discover your aircraft may be designed and outfitted either way.

Are you looking for more articles on avionics? Visit www.avbuyer.com/articles/category/business-aviation-avionics/

❯ Ken Elliott is a highly-respected industry authority on avionics as a member of the NextGen Advisory Council sub-committee and Technical Director, Avionics at Jetcraft. Contact Ken via ken.elliott@jetcraft.com or www.www.jetcraft.com.

This article was written by Ken Elliott, Jetcraft Avionics – Technical Director, for AvBuyer Magazine. It was published in the March 2016 issue. Click here to view the Digital issue of the March AvBuyer or to view Archived editions.

Helping you understand the technology, integration and advances of aircraft avionics and equipage, Ken Elliott continues a five-part series on aircraft connectivity, this month with a review of providers and service…

In our introduction to aircraft connectivity, we began by showing how aircraft connect inbound and outbound to the external aviation community. For aircraft, connectivity may mean data associated with communication, navigation or surveillance. For example, the data shared with GPS positioning as navigation and ADS for surveillance can be considered as connectivity.

For the purpose of this series we’ll focus on communication, with both the voice and data that it carries. So keep in mind that, in reality, total aircraft connectivity is a very broad subject.

Service providers are the link between networks and customers. They may be offering turnkey solutions to operators as primary providers or specialized solutions as secondary.

The networks are actually platforms that connect sources to destinations. For example, a satellite receives data from a source and relays the information to a destination. To understand why platforms such as satellites and ground facilities are necessary, we begin with a quick physics review of wavelength and frequency.

Basic Physics of Aircraft Communication

The electromagnetic spectrum (EM) is a fascinating area of physics that forms the background for many aspects of our lives. Consisting of an electric component and – at 90° – a magnetic component, a sine wave oscillates between positive and negative cycles so many times per second. The rate of oscillation is termed frequency and the higher the frequency, the more cycles of EM energy occur within each second of time.

Imagine a fixed oscillation of 125m cycles per second… that is a Very High Frequency (VHF) waveform oscillating either side of a zero energy level 125m times during one second, or Mega Hertz (MHz). By modulating the peaks of this wave (defined as the carrier wave) at the rate of our speech, 85–255 cycles per second, messages can be sent over long distances.

ATC towers and avionics equipment create these carrier waves, modulate them with the voice from the pilot’s microphone and then transmit them over the airspace. Once received by antennas placed on each aircraft, onboard avionics remove the modulation from the carrier and process the signal into audio for the pilot’s headset.

Equally, superimposed modulation frequencies can be data (images, text, etc.) for other onboard display devices. This method of communicating is termed Amplitude Modulation (AM, see Figure 2). Another method, known as Frequency Modulation (FM, see Figure 3), varies the whole carrier waveform at a rate that produces audio or data.

The range of carrier frequencies that we call VHF are only capable of radiating as line of sight, so VHF signals do not follow the Earth’s curvature. Therefore they have limited range but still project information much further than we can ‘throw our voices’.

Other frequency ranges behave differently: High Frequency (HF) signals, which cycles at a rate of 2-30 MHz, do follow the Earth’s curvature. Despite the fact HF has served communications on long haul flights for many years, it is subject to all sorts of signal variation. The ionosphere, impervious to HF signals, drifts up and down in relation to the Earth’s surface.

This characteristic causes the deflected HF radiated beam to be shifted as it circumvents the planet due to the whimsical activity of the Sun, causing the HF frequency to drift around and the demodulated signal to fade in and out of reception.

Some time ago satellites became the answer to long-range communication, additionally offering the capability to handle significant amounts of data at very high speeds. Some satellite networks, such as Iridium, use a greater number of satellites (66) in low earth orbits to provide worldwide coverage throughout the entire globe. Others, such as those provided by Inmarsat, use geostationary satellites fixed in space and offer coverage to within about 15 degrees latitude of the North and South Poles.

Using different ground and airborne equipment, ATC and aircraft transmit carrier waves, modulated by voice and data, to satellites operating at frequencies between 1 and 40 Giga Hertz (GHz). More or less, this translates to communication rates a million times faster than existing terrestrial rates.

Communication Networks and Platforms

There are several major and minor satellite networks offering platforms as a means of bi-directional international connectivity between ATC, entertainment and information services for the aircraft customers they serve, Figure 5.

Meanwhile, there are three major (and several partner) ground facility networks offering platforms as a means of bi-directional regional connectivity between ATC, data services and aircraft. Also, multiple aircraft communicate between themselves on similar frequencies and modes to those used by ground stations.

The three major ground based network providers are Rockwell Collins ARINC using ‘Direct’ services for Business Aviation, Honeywell’s Global Data Center (GDC) and SITA. For these ground-based communications, SITA and ARINC work together with respect to VHF and HF frequency allocation and usage.

These major network providers use regional partners to help bring services online and then operate regional ground facilities. Beside satellite communication, and as voice communication transitions into digital data, High Frequency DataLink (HFDL) and VHF DataLink Mode 2 (VDLM2) are taking over as the preferred technology platforms for relaying instructions and messages across the planet.

In 2016, SmartSky Networks plans to emerge as a major phone and 4G LTE wireless network provider for aircraft operators. SmartSky, teaming with Satcom Direct as the service provider, will offer service above 10,000ft using a terrestrial network of air-to-ground (ATG) cell towers, initially within the US, but with an eye on international coverage later. GoGo Biz is an existing ATG provider, in addition to its Iridium services. It offers US coverage and broadband capability for Business and General Aviation aircraft.

Satellite Network Services for Aviation

• Eutelsat: In-flight Ka Band connectivity partnered with ViaSat.
• Iridium: Operational, passenger and safety services from cockpit to cabin. Specific programs for Business Aviation.
• Inmarsat: Operational, passenger and safety services from cockpit to cabin. Specific programs for Business Aviation.
• Intelsat: C and Ku Band broadband.
• SES: Full range of services supporting cockpit to cabin requirements.
• Telesat: C and Ku Band broadband, with Panasonic and ViaSat.
• Thuraya: L Band and mobile communications services.
• ViaSat: Ku and Ka Band broadband.
• XTAR: X Band services mainly for government use.

Service Providers

While Rockwell’s ARINC, Honeywell’s GDC and SITA are, in themselves, major ground and space-based service providers, others have emerged to offer a broad range of services. Several providers focus on niche services. For example, ViaSat, with its fast broadband video/internet service, operates a satellite of its own and leases bandwidth from others. This company works directly with business jet operators via its Yonder program.

Remarkably, ViaSat provides the satellite, aircraft avionics and ground network for its fast and reliable internet broadband services broadcast via Ku and Ka band carrier frequencies. Voice and data may be routed through outside service providers such as Satcom Direct.

While some companies own the satellites and provide a partial service, others just offer turnkey solutions. Companies like Rockwell Collins and Honeywell that do not own satellites engage with operators on many levels, providing the avionics and acting as a service provider. They utilize satellite networks owned and operated by established space technology companies such as Inmarsat or Iridium.

For simplicity, service providers may be split into two main groups. The first group – focused on trip planning – concentrates on providing a variety of services to the aircraft and its crew, both prior to flight and in real time during the flight. The second group covers flight data that address aircraft performance, location, route tracking and recording.

In our previous article we listed no fewer than 18 trip planning service providers. Some of these are well known to all, such as Universal and Boeing’s Jeppesen, offering a wide array of trip services and more. Others may be regionally specific or target their services to a particular operator group.

In that article we also listed nine flight data service providers, many centered on the emerging flight tracking market. Additional providers are emerging. By visiting their competitive websites you may see for yourself the variety and extent of services on offer.

Services

Providers offer different levels of service that may be contracted. Following is an attempt at a comprehensive summary of services by satellite, ground facilities, trip plan, flight data and a few useful tools.

Satellite Services

• When used for communication, satellites act as the bridge to ADS-C and conduit for voice, text, oceanic clearance & delivery and FANS.
• When used for information, they provide a link to weather, flight tracking, asset monitoring and emergency locating, and allow a broad avenue for streams of useful data.
• By using high speeds and broadbands, they relay images and video using the internet and private intranets.

Ground Facility Services

• Apart from the traditional Aircraft Communication & Addressing System (ACARS) service to air carriers, ground facilities provide analogue and digit al terminal in formation (ATIS & D -ATIS). Further services include ADS -B and emergency location over land.
• Ground facility operating platforms include C PDL C and HF DL for continental pre-departure clearance and messaging, while providing terminal weather, alerts and other important information to pilots.

Trip Plan Services

• Pilots may access a host of information from trip planning services, such as airport data, concierge and fuel arrangements, flight plans, weather and air traffic data.
• Complete manuals, charts and databases can be accessed, updated or shared and notices received, all in real time.
• Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) and datalink applications may also be available.

Flight Data Services

• For data needs, recent concern over flight t racking/ monitoring triggered a revolution across this technology sector. However other data have been collected, recorded and transmitted for decades. These include; Out, Off, On, In information, maintenance, safety and overall aircraft performance. Health & usage monitoring (HUMS) and engine trend monitoring (E TM) are typical examples of performance data.
• Specific to the recording of data, modern aircraft recorders (including Quick Access Recorders, i.e., QARs) monitor voice and store hundreds of aircraft flight parameters.

Tools

• Data tools are designed to optimize data communication. These include acceleration and data filtering. There are other tools, available for mobile applications and tools for accessing services, such as the NBAA’s ATS information as well as certain medical aids provided by commercial firms.

Additional Summary Comments

Satellite communication (satcom) has three components: Ground Earth Station – GES (using parabolic dishes); Space Segment (satellite); Air Earth Station – AES (aircraft).

The space portion uses geostationary satellites positioned, for example, 22,300 miles away from Earth, or low earth orbit satellites at only around 485 miles away. The three primary satellite operators for Business Aviation are Iridium, Inmarsat and ViaSat. Iridium covers the whole earth, including all oceans and both poles, while Inmarsat does not cover the poles. Iridium and Inmarsat own their satellites, but ViaSat owns one and leases bandwidth on others.

The performance of aircraft equipment connecting to the satellites reflects the network’s limitations. For example, Iridium-based GoGo Broadband is currently US domestic and partial Canada, operating at and above 10,000ft AGL, whereas Inmarsat’s Swift Broadband can operate below 10,000ft AGL, including on the ground, and covers a large portion of the planet. ViaSat operates like Inmarsat but with less overall coverage.

Other performance connectivity considerations may introduce limitations for operators, including:

• Weather over ground stations impacting data transfer rates;
• Antenna angles and elevations acting as a physical limitation;
• Transitioning between satellite coverage regions; and
• Scheduled and unscheduled maintenance.

Some services such as GoGo Biz include ATG ground-based domestic capability, as well as satellite coverage. The ground based coverage can provide reliable internet capability at a low cost. Data speeds are typically lower than what terrestrial-based users experience, but are catching up fast. One means of allowing broader bandwidth and higher data rates is to operate at different carrier frequencies. For satellites, the options are:

• X band (8-12 GHz)
• Ku band (12-18 GHz)
• K band (18-26 GHz)
• Ka band (26-40 GHz)

The use of the Ka band is relatively new and, going forward, appears to be the carrier frequency band of choice. Airborne systems, using this frequency band, are able to stream videos, download large data files and provide video conferencing across multiple onboard devices. Bandwidth can control the speed of data.

For ATG ground-based networks, moving the carrier from 3-4 MHz to 60 MHz reduces data package download time. Latency reduction techniques, meanwhile, reduce the time it takes for any single data byte to go back and forth between the aircraft and ground towers.

It should be noted that with all the commercial airline users and increasing number of business jet users, expanded coverage is still a significant challenge for infrastructure developers trying to maintain a reliable and continuous service worldwide.

Over subsequent articles, we will address how networks and service providers transfer connectivity data into the aircraft, how data are processed, and then how information is presented on board.

Are you looking for more articles on avionics? Visit www.avbuyer.com/articles/category/business-aviation-avionics/

❯ Ken Elliott is a highly-respected industry authority on avionics as a member of the NextGen Advisory Council sub-committee and Technical Director, Avionics at Jetcraft. Contact Ken via ken.elliott@jetcraft.com or www.www.jetcraft.com.

This article was written by Ken Elliott, Jetcraft Avionics – Technical Director, for AvBuyer Magazine. It was published in the Februray 2016 issue. Click here to view the Digital issue of the February AvBuyer or to view Archived editions.

Helping you understand the technology, integration and advances of aircraft avionics and equipage, Ken Elliott begins a five-part series on aircraft connectivity, starting with an introduction and overview of this vast subject.

For the last several years, designers, developers, providers and integrators have each contributed enormously to a revolution in aircraft connectivity, both internal to the fuselage and externally to destinations throughout the world. We are:

• Less reliant on voice communication;
• More able to monitor other aircraft and receive detailed performance of our own machine; and
• We can operate offices in the sky using high speed data, watch HD videos, track real time movement over distant oceans and send social media messages to our loved ones from all corners of the planet.

Over the next five articles, AvBuyer will review how we accomplish these marvels of our time, addressing both Networks and Providers, and the services they offer. We will cover equipment, integration and options available to business aircraft operators. Above all, we’ll attempt to demonstrate the wider aircraft connectivity of today and tomorrow, enabling operators to see the benefits of integrated systems and make wise economic choices for their investments going forward.

Note that connectivity is used in place of communication. Communication, by definition, implies voice and data streams but connectivity goes much further, as will be revealed.

A High Level Introduction & Overview

An aircraft connects externally to the outside world and internally to its onboard systems. The complexity of this connectivity is so vast that Figure 1 (right) can only represent a simplistic overview. This overall series, however, will mirror this functional block representation and the sub-sections of this introduction will do the same.

Satellite Networks

Ground-based facilities are adequate for most external connectivity, providing an aircraft is well within range, and the technology bandwidth and frequency are appropriate for the task. More significantly satellite networks have evolved to replace the old High Frequency (HF) services, filling in the oceanic and polar airspaces. They also supplant some of the ground VHF-based services and are on the way to doing more.

Aviation today is very dependent on satellites that provide voice, text, data, internet and video services to fleets of aircraft or single operators via Service Providers.

Inmarsat offers operator, passenger and safety services via its legacy Aero, Swift 64 and Broadband programs. During 2015, it commenced Ka Band platform coverage with the launch of a new range of satellites, and in partnership with Cisco, for gateway applications, offering 50Mb per second.

Ka band, branded as Global Express (Aviation), uses Inmarsat I-5 supplied satellites, of which there will be three, while L band is available from three earlier generation I-4 satellites, offering 3G service, and five legacy I-3 satellites also providing L band service.

Iridium also offers operator, passenger and safety services from its 66 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. It enables broadband services for laptops and tablets. In 2016, as new satellites come on line, Iridium will begin to offer faster broadband with speeds of 1.4Mb per second. Both satellite networks offer smartphone capability, including optimized applications that may be used on board the business aircraft.

A third network, ViaSat, offers Business Aviation inflight Ka and Ku band internet. Services include video teleconferencing and this year speeds will double and coverage will increase up to seven times using a new second satellite. ViaSat has made significant inroads into Business Aviation, where existing aircraft OEM standardized platforms are not the only option. Their recent collaboration with Jet Aviation, on a 2016 Global Express program, is an example of this development.

Ground-Based Facilities

Still very much a part of the aviation infrastructure, ground-based services include voice, text and data, mostly over VHF. Aircraft communicate with Air Traffic Control Centers (ATCC), Terminal Radar Approach Controllers (TRACONs), and Air Route Control Centers (ARCC).

Very High Frequency (VHF) sits further along in the frequency spectrum than its longer range companion, HF. It is, primarily, a continental land-based communication system. VHF, as line-of-sight communication, has limited range. It uses a carrier modulated at much lower frequency rates with voice or data.

Still using VHF, but as a short-range capability, data services are also provided in different regions throughout the world. VDL Mode 2 (VDLM2), used for digital datalink, is 10 times faster than traditional VHF analogue datalink (VDL Mode 0). Traditional aircraft equipment can be replaced or upgraded to include VDLM2 capability.

VDLM2 supports the Controller Pilot DataLink Communications (CPDLC) requirement of Data Comm and is required for European and ICAO mandates. For the US, initial applications of datalink use both VDLM2 and allow continued use of VDL Mode 0. These form part of the overall adoption of FANS 1/A, extending to include North Atlantic Tracks System (NATS) that eventually will evolve into a wider data capability under the banner of ATN-B2.

At a lower frequency and using repeater ground stations, polar coverage of data can still be served by High Frequency Data Link (HFDL). Although Iridium satellite polar coverage (part of FANS over Iridium – FOI) is now available, HFDL remains an integral capability in the FANS 1/A toolkit.

Data shared between users includes operational, weather and engine reporting. Clearances, runway conditions and text messages are part of ATC data that will increase under NextGen/SES2+/ICAO Block programs as they move away from voice methods of communication.

Service Providers

While satellite networks and ground facilities provide the link between users, service providers offer the method to use those links. Providers support multiple applications and aggressively compete for the business (see Figure 2).

Ground facility providers are primarily ARINC (a division of Rockwell Collins) and SITA (a consortium owned by European airlines). Other VHF datalink services include ADCC China, DECEA Brazil, AVICOM Japan and Aero Thai.

These service providers and others that specialize at a sub-tier level, offer a potpourri of satellite- and groundbased tools for pilots and operators. Most services involving the use of data can be grouped into two primary categories. One is trip plan and the other flight data, and these include aircraft performance and flight tracking.

Beyond the satellite and ground facility service providers are sub-tier suppliers of specialized data tools that support the provider platforms. These data tools, however, are also offered or bundled by the primary service providers themselves.

Figures 3 and 4 provide comprehensive but not complete groupings of these sub-tier providers. Bear in mind that all service providers have multiple capabilities. It would therefore be prudent to contact each directly, including researching their websites. Lists in this article show where service providers tend to focus their resources.

Within each data grouping are the types of services being offered. Figures 5 and 6 begin with services provided from satellite and ground facility providers.

Figures 7 and 8 represent the specialized operation services from sub-tier service providers. These tools can be tabled under two major groups, trip planning and flight data. It is worth mentioning that included in the services provided are several additional tools. These are acceleration and filtering of data, mobile applications, medical aids and member services such as NBAA Air Traffic Services (NBAA ATS).

Connecting Onboard with External Transfer Platforms

Think of external transfer platforms as the means of moving internal voice and digital data to satellite networks and ground facilities, via service providers. Also these platforms receive and process data from outside. These platforms are on-board aircraft equipment transforming and transferring external and internal derived electronic information, in and out of the aircraft. External transfer platforms include complex Satcom and VHF equipment from avionics suppliers.

Connecting Internally via Onboard Platforms

External transfer platforms process and pass on voice, video and data to onboard cabin system platforms having topical brand names such as Smart Link, Venue and Ovation Select.

Connecting Internally with Onboard Services

From video to text messages, passenger address to lighting control, aircraft onboard services are as broad in their ability to control anything in the cabin as they are complex. Subsequent articles in this series will address these and other topics in much greater detail, informing readers of capabilities and choices available to operators.

Fully integrated platforms provide many services throughout both the cockpit and the cabin. Figures 10 and 11 offer just some of the platforms and associated services.

One such internal service on Figure 11 – ‘Provider Services’ – offers a wealth of information to both the cabin and the cockpit, including weather, moving maps, flight plans and company message transfer.

Converting Onboard

Think of these onboard platforms as a means of transposing physical things into digital things. Later these digital things are transformed into terabytes of data sent onward, via external transfer platforms, over superhighways forming an oceanic-capable internet.

Deep within an aircraft are sensors and converters that provide masses of data to both onboard and external transfer platforms. Most sensors are an integral part of the aircraft build, unless part of an aftermarket modification. On the other hand, many converters are added to facilitate the conversion of one kind of data to another. Examples include analogue-to-digital conversions and router-to-Wi-Fi connections, used when complex cockpit or cabin systems are added.

Aircraft manufacturers with the luxury of designing fully integrated avionics from scratch, can largely avoid conversion of signals and data. So expect to see conversion more in aftermarket solutions. Note that proposals from MROs focusing on aftermarket upgrades will often include conversion equipment, so do not be surprised when it appears on bids and proposals.

A common and emerging need for both sensors and converters is to enable the transfer of aircraft performance data to on-board tablets and devices or to external transfer systems for sending real-time data to the ground.

Displaying Onboard

Specifically, displaying of data and video onboard aircraft has become something of a separate area of connectivity. We listen to voice either in real time or animated, but the reliance on sound is becoming less for flight crews.  With broadband, display methods are critical to passengers.

Data as imagery, and data as visual script, are presented to flight crews on primary and multifunction flight displays, back up displays, FMS control display units, electronic flight bags, tablets and so many other forms of image presentation, such as HUDs with EVS.

Data as imagery, visual script and video are presented to passengers on seat controls, seat monitors, group monitors and via cabin Wi-Fi on tablets, smart phones and other devices. There is even now the product that covers sidewalls and bulkheads, thereby allowing full size display of images for the benefit (or possibly dread) of passengers.

It’s worth noting that many displays are hosted and branded by big name avionics manufacturers, forming subparts of complex systems, but the displays themselves are often made by other specialized suppliers, such as Barco.

A Future Vision

Aircraft devices connect and convert physical things into digital things. Onboard platforms scale and combine digital things, as data streams, to external reaching platforms. Later, terabytes of data are transmitted externally.

As aviation integrates into the Internet of Things (IoT) with its vast future ‘data lakes’, the road ahead offers endless possibilities, restricted only by the availability of storage and transfer technology, and the security of data, protected from both intentional and unintended consequences.

In 2016, Bombardier launches its new Inmarsat-based WAVE (Wireless Access Virtually Everywhere). With such smart branding alone, the smell of future possibilities already permeates the airspace in which we fly.

Are you looking for more articles on avionics? Visit www.avbuyer.com/articles/category/business-aviation-avionics/

❯ Ken Elliott is a highly-respected industry authority on avionics as a member of the NextGen Advisory Council sub-committee and Technical Director, Avionics at Jetcraft. Contact Ken via ken.elliott@jetcraft.com or www.www.jetcraft.com.

This article was written by Ken Elliott, Jetcraft Avionics – Technical Director, for AvBuyer Magazine. It was published in the January 2016 issue. Click here to view the Digital issue of the January AvBuyer or to view Archived editions.

Helping you understand avionics advances and related requirements for equipage, Ken Elliott reviews aviation technologies within the NextGen/SESAR architecture, and this month provides an overview and conclusion to his series.

As we enter the final month of 2015, reflection on the current status and future of NextGen implementation may be helpful.

Throughout 2015 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Maintenance Repair Organizations (MROs) have been busy developing and completing their aircraft solutions for Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast Out (ADS-B Out), as well as Future Air Navigation Systems (FANS). Equipment suppliers have been introducing new and improved technology, while the FAA has readied itself for ADS-B Out, made strides with Data Communication (Data Comm) and introduced more Performance Based Navigation (PBN) procedures.

As aircraft OEMs provide NextGen hardware and software updates (available via their dedicated customer portals), MROs have been announcing creative installation choices for legacy aircraft. It is common to find one-time equipage upgrades, embracing both FANS and ADS-B needs.

All providers claim their offering to be the most cost-effective. There are several competing solutions on the same platform, such as the Bombardier Challenger 604. However, as aircraft age their equipage changes; so be careful to select a system that effectively integrates with your current avionics.

Across the world, implementations vary by date and by class of aircraft, operations and airspace. This makes for a complex unraveling of compliance requirements, especially for those who operate throughout different regions of airspace.

Dates and other variables are partially covered in this article, and some operators understandably believe these dates will inevitably shift to the right. However, with ADS-B Out there is little sign that slippage will happen. There has been some give in the GPS requirements of ADS-B, largely as a concession to the airline lobbyists, but there are a number of stringent conditions attached. The FAA, at least, will likely remain firm on its January 1, 2020 ADS-B Out deadline for equipage.

From a general perspective, currently the world can be divided into three groups of future aviation improvements:

• FAA NextGen;
• EU Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR); and
• ICAO Global ATM Concept – Block Upgrade Plan.

While other nations have noteworthy programs, such as Australia’s OneSKY, Japan’s CARATS and China’s ATMB collaboration with Airbus, they are all linked in one way or another, with one or more of the three major programs listed above.

Data Comm

The FAA is on target to implement Data Comm at over 50 ATC Towers and Tracons in 2016 and En-route Centers before 2020. Successful trials were completed at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and Memphis International Airport (MEM), allowing recent expansion to Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) and William P Hobby Airport (HOU). In Europe, VDL Mode 2 is being phased in over the next several years as the ground facility updates that were behind schedule, are completed.

FANS and Oceanic Tracks

The North Atlantic datalink mandate began with Phase 2a in February 2015, with FANS 1/A controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC), and ADS-C, required between FL350 and FL390. This requirement expands to the entire ICAO NAT region on December 7, 2017, and in January 2020 it applies to flights in this region above FL290.

ADS-B Out

All FAA 634 ADS-B ground stations have been completed, and there are over 50 solutions either approved, or in work and listed on the FAA ADS-B website.

Table A (sourced from FAA), provides a good overview of ADS-B aircraft equipage status. From October 1, there were 51 months remaining to equip 91.3% of the US-based GA fleet, being mindful that proportionately, the light GA sector comprises a much bigger number than corporate aircraft.

The international mandate for ADS-B varies by country or region and by new or in-service aircraft types:

• For the US, it is January 2020;
• In Europe, new aircraft (June 2016) and in-service (June 2020);
• Other regions have either already implemented versions of ADS-B or have plans to do so.

PBN

Precision Based Navigation procedures dependent on satellites are migrating more and more across the US airspace (Table B). Recently we have seen Metroplex procedures at Houston, Washington DC, and Northern California. For corporate aircraft, the intended expansion into Las Vegas Metroplex that may commence in 2016 could be of particular interest.

FAA has a 2018 goal of 10% efficiency improvement at core airports, using flight paths unconstrained by conventional Navaids and using, point-to-point, GPS procedures.

PBN includes precision approaches using Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), popular with General Aviation. There are 1,739 airports served by 3,567 WAAS approaches and a whopping 995 of these do not have traditional Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) at the runway itself.

Enhanced Low Vision Operations (ELVO)

The FAA has yet to release the new ground-breaking rule, allowing all Enhanced Flight Vision System (EFVS) operators, irrespective of operating category, to dispatch, begin and complete approaches during low visibility conditions. The new CFR 91.176 rule is still due for distribution in 2015.

The FAA and Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) are preparing a new operation advisory for the use of Synthetic Vision Guidance during low visibility. Separately, GPS Based Augmentation System (GBAS) approaches are still being considered for major hub runways.

As PBN procedures develop, the enhancing of these with ELVO becomes more apparent. Meanwhile, equipment developers are fast creating new technologies that will enable operators to meet the full intent of the rule.

Figure 1, ‘Future Approach Tools’ shows ways to fly the final approach segment that may be introduced over the long-term. There are no upcoming mandates for ELVO, but the FAA, EUROCONTROL and ICAO continue to aggressively plan for implementation via enabling guidance.

TCAS 7.1

In its early form, TCAS 7.0 had some resolution advisory issues. As a result, the European Commission Implementing Rule 1332/2011 now mandates the carriage of ACAS II version 7.1 within European Union airspace from 1 December 2015, by all aircraft currently equipped with version 7.0.

Since upgrading to 7.1, some aircraft have had different resolution advisory issues that are not from ahead of the aircraft, but spuriously occur from behind, originating from other aircraft activity. These are addressed in FAA InFO 15005, published March 2015.

NextGen to 2020

The FAA has a Systems Engineering plan (SE2020) for near- to mid-term NextGen implementation. This will be followed by SE2025, taking the US to another level of a fully integrated national airspace. Europe’s SESAR shows its public implementation calendar out to 2021.

Presently, the FAA has a core focus on ADS-B that, with its ground stations in place, is more concentrated on fleet equipage and operator preparedness, in time for the 2020 ADS-B Out mandate deadline. The FAA has four other core focus areas in its plan, including:

• Data Comm;
• PBN;
• Multiple Runway Operations (MRO); and
• Surface.

In addition, the FAA is concentrating on Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM), En-Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) and System Wide Information Management (SWIM). These three areas provide the infrastructure to support the four core focus areas.

2020-2025 & Beyond, By Technology

Regarding the period 2020-2025 (SE2025) and indeed beyond, there are some interesting developments in government and industry collaborative planning.

Very obvious and significant is how all the technologies that follow are interrelated. As one program implementation progresses, it enhances others. Beyond 2020, operators may experience exponential benefits from their NextGen investments. The public, as flyers and taxpayers, certainly should reap time and predictability benefits one can only wish for today.

ADS-B In

The next big enhancement of ADS-B is the ‘In’ phase, where aircraft may view other aircraft activity, in relation to their own, on cockpit displays. With ADS-B In, everyone on the ground, and in the air, may have the situational advantage of knowing where everyone else is, within a prescribed distance of themselves.

Surprisingly few realize the wider benefits of ADS-B surveillance. Here are a few of those:

• In-flight automated weather, notices and other useful info;
• Flight interval management and closely-spaced parallel operations;
• In-trail procedures when in Oceanic Airspace (via ADS-C);
• A critical tool in the time-based operations (TBO) toolbox.

Data Comm ATN B2

The FAA, industry and RTCA are closing in on final recommendations for the Air Traffic Network (ATN) version B2. ATN B2 takes FANS over VDL Mode 2 to a different level. It allows for:

• Dynamic RNP;
• Advanced flight interval management including winds;
• 4D trajectory operations;
• Deletion of jet routes in favor of Q and T routes; and
• Positive impacts to SIDs and STARs.

The means of communication, meanwhile, may increase from satellite and VHF to L band, providing many options for continent-wide Data Comm.

Advanced PBN

Interestingly, the FAA and industry are working together with RTCA (via an Ad Hoc Work Group) on a new PBN strategy that considers all the current concerns of PBN implementation, the stakeholder interests and a focus on a fully coordinated long-term strategy.

As PBN migrates across Metroplexs, there are concerns for the future, centered on both unintentional and deliberate GPS interference. Instances have occurred, and tests show that there are vulnerabilities. These may increase as cyber security becomes a bigger issue for all.

Wisely, FAA policymakers are reconsidering the draw-down of conventional Navaids, primarily with respect to DME coverage. In fact by broadening the current DME-DME coverage and creating a new hybrid technology incorporating ADS-B, the FAA may have a steadfast Plan B solution to the GPS problem (particularly vulnerability to jamming).

New ‘advanced technology DME ground stations’ would continue to provide a high degree of alternative position accuracy into existing cockpits. The ADS-B information will complement the DME signals and create Alternative Positioning, Navigation & Timing (APNT).

Meanwhile it is a goal of FAA to see, by 2030, all aircraft equipped with some form of PBN Lateral Path Vertical (LPV) navigation. However, certain air carriers have expressed concern over the difference in LPV implementation across the globe, making them reluctant to equip for international operations.

Advanced PBN promises to bring continuous descents, ascents, Q routes, IFR trajectory-based flights, vector free arrivals and EoR final approaches, on parallel runways.

ELVO

Enhanced Low Vision Operations using several different technologies and means of guidance may eventually change IFR to VFR everywhere during approaches to touchdown and roll-out. Some technologies GBAS (as GAST-D), SVGS and Multi- Mode Receivers (MMR) may extend the instrument segment of the approach nearer to the touchdown zone (TDZE) of the runway.

Enhanced Flight Vision System (EFVS) introduces an equivalent visual segment, extended to the TDZE by reliable and predictable vision systems, currently in development. Advances in EFVS are promising much lower equipage costs as well as space and weight saving head-worn displays, or cameras that will bust through the most extreme of low visibility, including cloud, fog, rain, snow, haze, dust and smog.

New FAA and later global rules will enable these profound changes to operations once the technologies are fully mature.

Surface

Currently the FAA has eight surface visual tools (SVT) under evaluation by controllers. TRACON’s and ARTCC’s will be able to monitor real-time surface traffic as if in airport control towers. Aircraft Electronic Flight Strips (AEFS) will be introduced at Newark Int’l in 2016, allowing automated airfield guidance and adding to SWIM surface surveillance.

When ADS-B In is widely embraced and implemented, huge on-ground benefits will be realized. Increasingly, under the FAA Surface Movement Guidance Control Program (SMGCS), airports are becoming safer with improved markings, lighting, safety-related guidance and much more.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)

Think of UAS as Medium- or High-Altitude platforms. The current concerns, centered on Low Altitude or small UAS (sUAS) operations, are both valid and influential in the long-term certification process for operating unmanned devices anywhere.

However, industry is only just defining the proper equipage for Communication, Navigation & Surveillance (CNS) for the unmanned aircraft that are intended for operation in the airspace shared by manned aircraft. RTCA recently released preliminary documentation on the UAS CNS and other aspects of this issue.

UAS platforms intended for shared airspace will be highly sophisticated, safe and more like manned aircraft. Importantly, they will undergo the same rigorous, time-consuming certification process as manned aircraft. Recently, the first UAS was approved for operations in shared airspace, albeit with many limitations imposed.

From a NextGen perspective, UAS will be treated just like manned aircraft, but expect a slow and delayed migration into manned airspace. It may take a lot longer than many believe before we truly see large numbers of UAS operating into our major airports.

4D Trajectory Operations

The FAA Air Traffic Organization (ATO) has a very interesting concept and long-term vision for the US airspace. This involves metering by time and speed rather than by distance. So, in some cases, an aircraft may fly slightly further, but will arrive ontime and correctly spaced, at a specific point in space. This enables predictability in Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM), and owning predictability is an ace card for Air Traffic Control.

A wide range of strategies and technologies feed into this concept, including SWIM, MRO, Advanced PBN, ATN B2, ELVO, ADS-B, Surface improvements and much more.

Some of the trajectory operation programs cover predicted time at waypoints during cruise, point in space metering for better separation, integrated departure and arrival concept (IDAC), and a reduction of the need for circling and holding flight patterns.

Summary

The ICAO Global ATM Concept block program is the cornerstone of the next generation of airspace. The US FAA has run with the ball and created a well-orchestrated implementation of its own NextGen SE2020 program. Eurocontrol’s SESAR while very impressive, is subject to local interpretations and some delays. Other international programs show excellent initiatives, perhaps best shown by Australia’s ADS-B program, already partially in place.

When you hear NextGen terms, such as ADS-B, FANS (Data Comm), PBN and ELVO, it can be quite confusing, but do not be deterred. All of these implementations are closely related and will exponentially enhance one another.

Equipping for each may seem painful, but the benefits outweigh the investments, especially when equipage is fully embraced and the majority of operators share similar capabilities. As SE2020 moves into SE2025, benefits will become ever more apparent and flying will be a much better experience for all!

Useful Reference Sources:

• FAA NextGen including Performance Snapshots
• Skybrary Aviation Safety
• EUROCONTROL
• SESAR Single European Sky ATM
• ICAO Global ATM Concept
• FAA CFR 91.176 NPRM
• RTCA Incorporated
• AEA – Aircraft Electronics Association
• NBAA – National Business Aviation Association

Are you looking for more articles on avionics? Visit www.avbuyer.com/articles/category/business-aviation-avionics/

❯ Ken Elliott is a highly-respected industry authority on avionics as a member of the NextGen Advisory Council sub-committee and Technical Director, Avionics at Jetcraft. Contact Ken via ken.elliott@jetcraft.com or www.www.jetcraft.com.

This article was written by Ken Elliott, Jetcraft Avionics – Technical Director, for AvBuyer Magazine. It was published in the December 2015 issue. Click here to view the Digital issue of the December AvBuyer or to view Archived editions.

Ken Elliott completes his discussion in AvBuyer of why collecting and analyzing aeronautical data is fundamentally important to more efficient operation of business aircraft as well as capitalizing on emerging airspace mandates.

Flight data recorders (FDRs) and cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) were the first equipment placed on board aircraft specifically to collect flight information. As requirements for flight data expanded, flight data acquisition units (FDAUs) were deployed to receive a wide range of performance parameters from aircraft systems. These FDAUs also provide streamed FDR data to Quick Access Recorders (QARs), sourcing FOQA (Flight Operations Quality Assurance) information and other measures, mostly for air carriers.

Additionally, Data Access Recorders (DARs) can record thousands of elements at high data rates from the aircraft’s digital buses. All these points of raw flight data can be linked from any worldwide airport to air carrier operations via the global system for mobile communications (GSM) or the internet. Also, when on the ground, USB connections or wireless connectivity allow easy and fast downloads at the aircraft.

Flight data are usually encrypted and compressed for security and ease. While FOQA information is unprocessed except for being desensitized, Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) provides meaningful results for analysis of cause, for example.

For both data and communications over Data Comm, on May 27, 2014 the FAA announced a security control audit of Data Comm to ensure that proactive protection methods are being implemented. This includes contingencies up to and including a complete loss of Data Comm services. Furthermore and related, on March 2, 2015 the FAA issued a policy statement regarding an existing recording rule that was well received by operators and gained widespread industry support.

Part 121 and 135 aircraft Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) are currently required to capture Data Comm as well as existing voice activity. Many legacy aircraft, however, could not comply, and the industry was not updating to the new CPDLC equipment. Under this new policy, the CVR recording requirements are separated between aircraft built before December 6, 2010 and those built after that date.

Real-Time ACM

Real time Aircraft Condition Monitoring (ACM) is available from several avionics suppliers through aircraft OEM programs. Using ACARS or Communication Management Units (CMUs) via Satcom, in-flight performance and maintenance events as well as aircraft performance trends can be monitored in real time, on the ground. This process enables troubleshooting and planning in preparation for the aircraft’s return to the ground.

More significantly, ACM can enable flight departments to arrange service or repairs at remote locations, including internationally. A problem detected in-flight and condition (repair) codes transmitted to the ground establish an opportunity for the operator or his maintenance provider to position equipment and resources at forward locations, especially during extended international trips.

Additionally, EFBs that generate or serve as a central point for significant information, can be directly interfaced to Data Comm providing meaningful real-time intelligence to and from an aircraft in flight, especially if they are operated in the background and not allowed to be a distraction to the flight crew. Additionally tablets approved for inflight use are portable so two-way data activity, as well as review, can be conducted in the comfort of the FBO or flight department.

Some tablet applications, existing for data acquisition, mostly serve the specific purposes of fee-based service providers, but they also provide significant benefit to flight crews and ground personnel. Other tablet applications are cockpit weather and performance tools that, when given pilot input, will provide very useful information in return. These applications of course can be tailored to the individual user’s need. A quick search of application stores will help find the right one for your flight department

Aircraft OEMs also now embed complex data acquisition, processing and transferring mechanisms within modern cockpits. Subject to customer authorization, this technology allows the OEM to directly monitor aircraft in-flight health & performance and advise customers on issues or concerns. OEM field service representatives can interact with technicians and pilots with remote troubleshooting assistance, using real-time diagnostics from the aircraft.

Admittedly, the OEMs also benefit from these aggregated statistics to improve long-term aircraft development, which is a win-win for aircraft designers and operators alike. Corporate aircraft health and performance monitoring consists of the following elements:

• The connection air to ground;
• Real time gathering of aircraft data;
• Security of data from end-to-end;
• Analysis of data useful to both OEM and operator.

Keep in mind that real-time data linked to the appropriate field service provider can be a powerful cost- and time-saving tool for flight departments, both at home and away.

Data Comm, as a means of transferring information, allows two-way data exchange between pilots and air traffic controllers. Negating the need for voice communication, it provides an ability to have uplinks simultaneously sent to flight departments on the ground when FMS messages are being received by the flight crew. Data Comm includes both Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) and Future Air Navigation (FANS) protocols.

To Conclude…

A wide range of information covering safety, health and performance monitoring can be sourced, grouped into data packages, transmitted, stored or downloaded from business jets and turboprops. This exchange is useful for operators, flight departments, maintenance technicians, owners, shareholders, CFOs, regulators and others.

All data should be protected, end-to-end, with security, de-identified as necessary and filtered or managed for useful purposes. It may be used to inform complex metrics for NextGen or to directly assist the efficiency and operation of flight departments. With real time reporting and field service mobile or on-line assistance, a whole new world of customer support opens up to operators.

Above all, it is becoming easier and more economical to access and analyze aircraft data, so that flight departments and owners are increasingly including this emerging technology in their aircraft purchase toolkit.

Are you looking for more articles on avionics? Visit www.avbuyer.com/articles/category/business-aviation-avionics/

❯ Ken Elliott is a highly-respected industry authority on avionics as a member of the NextGen Advisory Council sub-committee and Technical Director, Avionics at Jetcraft. Contact Ken via ken.elliott@jetcraft.com or www.www.jetcraft.com.

This article was written by Ken Elliott, Jetcraft Avionics – Technical Director, for AvBuyer Magazine. It was published in the November 2015 issue. Click here to view the Digital issue of the November AvBuyer or to view Archived editions.

Helping you understand avionics advances and related requirements for equipage, Ken Elliott reviews aviation technologies within the NextGen/SESAR architecture for AvBuyer, this month focusing on data to inform.

Nature seems to have a way of moving forward in its evolution by deliberately imprinting a certain amount of unpredictability into its design. If you have ever studied Nature’s most perfect creations, you will notice imperfections that support this hypothesis. These apparent anomalies possibly trigger building blocks of natural selection. Unfortunately, even though an integral part of Nature, humankind has not quite grasped this characteristic of natural phenomena and continues to strive for the ultimate in perfection in all of its activity.

So, as we slowly understand and attempt to perfect the world around us, we continue to grapple with the unpredictability of the natural world. For aviation, there is the inability to reliably predict both weather and the fluctuating dynamics of four-dimensional airspace. For ground transportation, dealing with movement across the earth’s two dimensional surface and adding a third dimension for time, is one challenge. But for aviation, dealing with three dimensional airspace and adding time as a fourth, is quite another.

We can best deal with unpredictable weather and the complex multi-dimensional aspects of airspace by collecting, analyzing and interpreting data. For pilots alone, aircraft already receive and send volumes of data covering everyday flight (see Table A).

Fundamentally NextGen technologies, including the mandates we have been covering in AvBuyer, focus on the weather and airspace challenges.

Data provide information in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that inform Key Performance Areas (KPAs). These are measurements or metrics. So while we have a wide spectrum of inbound and outbound information from an aircraft, some of it can be used to create and inform metrics.

Metrics provide insight to air traffic controllers, regulators, operators and the general public (as both users and taxpayers). All these parties are stakeholders in the National Airspace System (NAS).

For air carriers, the desired metric outcomes are predictability, efficiency and (by default) cost. Most important for operators of business jets and turboprops is the ability to perform and complete a flight as filed (which presumes access to airspace), while predictability, efficiency and cost metrics are of a high priority.

Aligned with, and including these priorities are a series of KPIs and KPAs used by ICAO, FAA and other aeronautical agencies to inform their program implementations. The full list is extensive but Table B provides an example.

Tied specifically to the current focus of the FAA’s NextGen program are a set of metrics prioritized to monitor short- to medium-term implementations. This set is shown in Table C.

Air carriers have been collecting, analyzing and interpreting statistics for a number of years, primarily through Aircraft Communication Address and Reporting System (ACARS). This legacy data protocol is OOOI-based (Out/Off/On/In). More detailed and diagnostic data, from flight data acquisition units, are providing valuable safety-related information to inform the flight safety metric.

These reports, once desensitized by MITRE, are shared with FAA via the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program. This is also known to Congress as the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) and Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) Implementation Plan. For corporate operators there is C-F0QA, with a number of users embracing the program as part of their Safety Management System (SMS) requirement.

Data Collection

For business jet and turboprop data, metrics and outcomes may be very useful to owners, shareholders and CFOs of companies that operate business aircraft. Information provided can inform decisions on day-to-day operations, aircraft replacement, upgrade, utilization and flight department efficiency.

While air carriers share statistics beyond their internal audience, they prudently do so via a firewall. Each item of data provided to a third party is de-identified for sensitive information such as registration number, pilot details and more. Sharing of critical information, both internal and external, is a sensitive matter, but methods exits to ensure security and identity protection.

Non air carriers currently share information on a very limited basis. The Flight Safety Foundation’s (FSF) and NBAA’s Business Aviation Safety Summit (BASS), recently focused on the importance of data sharing and analysis. Apparently, the ASIAS program has recruited 12 corporate flight department members and is looking for more participants to include Corporate Aviation within the same analysis strategies that have helped to reduce the air carrier accident rate.

In March 2015, NetJets donated funds to Ohio State University, part of which is to be used for research involving the integration of data analytics with aviation operations to develop new concepts that will improve safety, accessibility and sustainability.

Momentum and interest is gaining in the Corporate Aviation environment to collect flight information as a productive business practice. If involving ‘no harm’ and minimal effort, operators may share de-identified versions of insightful data to FAA and others, who in return can improve ATC, aviation services, NAS performance and of course safety.

Proposed FAA limits at the big three New York area airports are a concern for corporate operators. Their representatives at NBAA and NATA believe that justification for the per hour slot limits affecting unscheduled traffic at each airport is not based on industry data. Teterboro is normally the airport of choice for corporate operators in the New York Metroplex but occasionally unscheduled flights do need to land at one of the big three airports. Corporate Aviation and their representatives should have the data to support their positions on these types of NAS issues, but they need operators and others to assist.

Methods for the Acquisition of US NAS Data

US NAS data are acquired and processed for FAA by NASA, MITRE and others. Some of this information is accessible and much is for internal consumption. The FAA in turn shares a significant amount of airspace statistics via the FAA Data Access System. Much of this shared data is focused on air carrier activity, but buried within is useful non-air carrier intelligence.

FAA Database Access Systems are as follows:

• Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM)
• Operational Network (OPSNET)
• Traffic Flow Management System Counts (TFMSC)
• Airline Service Quality Performance (ASQP)
• Terminal Area Forecast (TAF)
• Business Jet Reports.

Data, for business jets and turboprops, are broadly centered on operations categories, aircraft types, activity by airport and fuel use. It is accessed by a number of non-government data miners, and along with information from other sources, can contribute to very informative statistics. Significantly and surprisingly, these analytics can be revealing for aircraft trading (see ARGUS’s TRAQPak for example).

Companies such as FlightAware, masFlight-GEE, Flightglobal and PASSUR provide (via the Cloud) analysis and extensive flight tracking information useful to operators of business jets and turboprops.

For aviation weather sources, it is recommended (in the US at least) to deep dive into what is provided by reading FAA AC 00-45G Change 2 (2014). This document provides all the FAA, NOAA and associated sources for aviation weather, as well as over 400 pages of useful weather-related data.

Similar weather and other aircraft performance sources can be found internationally, utilizing standard ICAO terminology.

Lastly, it is recommended to spend a few minutes reviewing the FAA NextGen Performance Snapshots website. Here may be found a wealth of data-derived information, regarding the NAS and its various users.

Next month, Ken Elliott will conclude this assessment of valuable data sources and applications.

Are you looking for more articles on avionics? Visit www.avbuyer.com/articles/category/business-aviation-avionics/

❯ Ken Elliott is a highly-respected industry authority on avionics as a member of the NextGen Advisory Council sub-committee and Technical Director, Avionics at Jetcraft. Contact Ken via ken.elliott@jetcraft.com or www.www.jetcraft.com.

This article was written by Ken Elliott, Jetcraft Avionics – Technical Director, for AvBuyer Magazine. It was published in the October 2015 issue. Click here to view the Digital issue of the October AvBuyer or to view Archived editions.

Helping you understand avionics advances and related requirements for equipage, Ken Elliott reviews aviation technologies within the NextGen/SESAR architecture for AvBuyer, this month focusing on Data Comm.

We begin this article with its relevance for Business Aviation – what are the benefits and impacts of Data Comm (primarily centered on commercial fleets) to the average business aircraft operator. Already nearly 1,000 US-based business jets are equipped with pre-departure clearance (PDC) digital technology, which requires radios capable of handling datalink communications.

Following are the benefits of Data Comm to business aircraft operators:

• Two-way data exchange, instead of voice, between pilots and air traffic controllers;
• Reduced separation between aircraft;
• Greater efficiency in route changes while remaining in the departure queue;
• Reduced user costs;
• No altitude or lateral restrictions when crossing via tracks;
• Routing advantages when avoiding weather;
• Use of ADS-B and ADS-C (which offer their own benefits but require Data Comm);
• Better pre-departure clearance and later en-route services;
• Increased fuel efficiency, safety and predictability;
• Oceanic operational benefits;
• Ability to have data uplinks sent to the flight department on the ground simultaneous to FMS message being received.

Following are the disadvantages of not participating in the voluntary use of US Data Comm services:

• Delayed departure clearances – in the queue;
• Less efficient communications and cockpit resource management;
• Increased crossing and altitude restrictions;
• Limitations to oceanic operations;
• Less favorable and possibly more frequent re-routes as the airspace congestion increases;
• More fuel consumed and higher hourly cost to the operator;
• Miscommunication of read-back errors.

Data Comm includes both Controller Pilot DataLink Communications (CPDLC) and Future Air Navigation Systems (FANS) protocols. The current implementation status of these technologies is in flux across the world and is causing operators to understandably deliberate on their equipage and training decisions. Following is an outline of Data Comm as of mid-2015.

FAA

In 2012 the US government committed $28.37m for Data Communication (Data Comm) Segment 1, to implement services that provide benefits including reduction of ground delays, greater airspace throughput and reduction in workload. Phase 1 of this segment covers departure clearance text-based data to the onboard Flight Management System, rather than traditional voice. Phase 2 focuses on en-route services.

The FAA has wisely taken a cautious approach to NextGen Data Comm implementation to date. The illustration highlights the phases of FAA Data Comm implementation and their benefits (provided courtesy of FAA).

At certain airports, during June 2015 changes to the receipt and uplink of flight plans by the FAA were adopted. CPDLC and Pre-Departure Clearance (PDC) act as a baseline for later NextGen Data Comm technology, providing services such as clearances, instructions, crew requests, reporting and traffic flow management. PDC may be used in place of CPDLC if the aircraft is not CPDLC equipped, but only through the end of 2016.

Initially as a trial phase, Phase 1 changes will not impact Business Aviation and will be voluntary for air carriers. Flight plan sections must comply with ICAO coding (ICAO-4444). Departure Clearances (DCLs) can be uplinked when a flight plan differs to what is existing in the FMS.

Understand that while Data Comm in the US is not mandated for all operators, if you want to use the Data Comm services and take advantage of its benefits, you will need to be appropriately equipped. All operators not equipped with CPDLC will likely receive lower priority departure clearances. For the US, long-term equipage will need to be adequate for FANS Baseline 2 and additional VHF (Satcom for US Oceanic).

DataLink services can be provided by Satellite, VHF or HF means, and the communication method may not necessarily be known by the operator. The air traffic services and third-party service provider determine the DataLink means, partially based upon your equipage and operational approval.

ATN-Baseline 1, is a digital system and FANS-1A, is an analog based system. Currently the digital operation is known as FANS 1/A+ over VDL-Mode 2 and the analog operation is known as the VDL-Mode 0/A. The FANS 1/A system uses both digital and analog components. These will later transition into a full ATN (Baseline 2) system, using new Segment 2 advanced services such as; 4D trajectories, Dynamic RNP, advanced interval management (A-IM) with ATC winds and D-Taxi (see also under North Atlantic-ICAO below). A later ATN Baseline 3 is being developed to include the contiguous US and a wider set of users.

To operate Data Comm within the US, operators must be approved, based on equipage and training via OpSpecs, M Specs or an LOA, depending upon the FAA FAR Part under which they operate.

Initial departure clearance trials have taken place at Newark, NJ and Memphis, TN by United Airlines and FedEx respectively and report between 6-12 minutes departure clearance time savings. These trials have been extended until late 2016. Beginning soon this CPDLC technology will be extended at up to 57 additional commercial airports at an estimated cost of $7m per facility.

A Segment 1, full Phase 2 final investment decision (FID), is due from the FAA by the close of 2015. Initial Phase 2 investment was approved and commenced in 2014.

Airlines and others have concerns over the security of Data Comm, including message protection and corruption of information critical to flight. On May 27, 2014 the FAA announced a security control audit of Data Comm to ensure that proactive protection methods are implemented. This includes contingencies up to and including, a complete loss of the Data Comm services.

The FAA intends to measure Data Comm performance via various metrics to be reported on its NextGen Performance Snapshots website (NPS) – www.faa.gov/nextgen/snapshots/.

One metric being considered is average taxi-out time. For Business Aviation, this could be IFR flight taxi time from ramp to take off. Longer taxi times indicate inefficiencies that Data Comm services should reduce.

On March 2, 2015 the FAA issued a policy statement regarding an existing data recording rule that was well received by operators and gained widespread industry support. Part 121 and 135 aircraft Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) are currently required to record Data Comm as well as existing voice activity. Many legacy aircraft – however – could not comply, and industry was not updating to the new CPDLC equipment.

Under the new policy, the CVR recording requirements are separated between aircraft built before December 6, 2010 and those built after that date. An existing FAA InFO 10016 document, dated August 16, 2010, is cancelled and a revised InFO is under development.

Data Comm is an essential part of airport surface operations, especially during its initial phase of departure clearance. The illustration demonstrates the wide spectrum of surface considerations at major airports today (courtesy of FAA).

North Atlantic (ICAO)

Since February 2015, for aircraft using the existing North Atlantic tracks between FL350 and FL390, FANS 1A, CPDLC and ADS-C operations are a requirement. This Phase 2 North Atlantic mandate resolves the ever-increasing volume of air traffic electing to use these desirable skyways. Note that Data Comm covers all of communication, surveillance and ATC intervention capabilities.

Beginning December 7, 2017 a Phase 2B mandate will extend applicability to the entire ICAO North Atlantic region, followed by another Phase 2C, effective January 30, 2020 adding all altitudes above FL290. If operating in areas of existing radar coverage, the New York Oceanic flight information region or the airspace north of 80 degrees north latitude, the Phase 2 requirement may be excepted.

On July 1, 2015 the FAA issued a notice clarifying and advising the areas of oceanic airspace where it will have jurisdiction. The notice highlights the air traffic control services available and complies with an ICAO requirement for member states to define their jurisdictions and available services. This short and informative notice may be located in the US Federal Register as Docket # FAA-2015-1497, Airspace Docket #15- AWA-4.

RTCA special committee SC214 is working closely with ICAO on harmonization of future Data Comm protocol and standards. This will ensure inter-operability across different world regions, streamline equipage requirements and reduce operator confusion.

Eurocontrol (SESAR)

As reported in the previous Avionics Mandates article, the dates for CPDLC implementation throughout Europe have changed. We covered date changes and regional implementation status. Important Eurocontrol dates include:

• Regulation (EC) 29/2009 covering CPDLC requirements will now be effective from February 5, 2018.
• All aircraft should be appropriately equipped by February 5, 2020. Forward- and retro-fit are now indistinguishable in the updated requirement.

FAA and SESAR harmonization is ongoing, just as with FAA and ICAO, ensuring similar protocols of Data Comm as aircraft transition from North Atlantic Tracks to EUROCONTROL airspace. The figure below offers a summary of harmonization technology areas (courtesy of SESAR/FAA).

A Gentle Reminder

As mentioned in previous articles, be very careful when assessing the equipage of your current or next aircraft for Data Comm. Very often aircraft are only provisioned, and what may apply to one range of serial numbers from the aircraft OEM may be very different to another.

Always consult with your maintenance or completion provider to ensure equipment “long part” numbers are applicable to the upgrade. Beyond the part number, most equipment will list a hardware and software status designation that should also be verified prior to the Data Comm, CPDLC or FANS, being implemented.

Do not forget training followed by operational approval is required. Consult with Business Aviation member organizations such as NBAA for advice on operations in different world regions. US operational approval guidance may be found under FAA Airworthiness Circular AC120- 70C recently updated and OpSpec A056 for air carriers.

Data Sources:

• http://www.faa.gov/nextgen/programs/datacomm/
• https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/afs/afs400/afs470/datacomm/
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWJ8mUl5LsQ
• www.icao.int (Search for Data CommGOLD)
• National Business Aviation Association
• Aircraft Electronics Association
• RTCA for Committees and Documents

Are you looking for more articles on avionics? Visit www.avbuyer.com/articles/category/business-aviation-avionics/

❯ Ken Elliott is a highly-respected industry authority on avionics as a member of the NextGen Advisory Council sub-committee and Technical Director, Avionics at Jetcraft. Contact Ken via ken.elliott@jetcraft.com or www.www.jetcraft.com.

This article was written by Ken Elliott, Jetcraft Avionics – Technical Director, for AvBuyer Magazine. It was published in the September 2015 issue. Click here to view the Digital issue of the September AvBuyer or to view Archived editions.