Service Oriented Architecture for the Next Generation Air Transportation System

The next generation air transportation system (NextGen) is intended to address increasing capacity demands while providing enhanced safety and security. Present day stovepiped systems are not sufficient to meet these demands. A more agile architecture based upon services and extensive data sharing is necessary to meet these goals. The underlying architecture will be based upon the concept of service oriented architectures (SOA). One of the FAA's key initiatives that will leverage the SOA is called system wide information management (SWIM). SWIM will be the foundation upon which NextGen is built, and will facilitate the development of new applications and decision support tools that take advantage of timely and accurate information. End users will benefit by having better visibility to information and shared situational awareness across interested parties. Service oriented architectures facilitate the sharing of information and services across the enterprise. Within the context of NextGen and SWIM, the key information that is shared includes: flight and flow data, aeronautical information, weather information, surveillance, and NAS (national airspace system) status. Services can include such capabilities as flight plan evaluation, weather forecasting, traffic congestion prediction, and many more. This approach also allows existing application functions and decision support tools to be "exposed" to the outside world, leading to re-use of existing resources and to a more accurate common situational awareness. Like any enterprise that is moving to an SOA-based infrastructure, the transition must be carefully planned and fielded in incremental steps. Ideally, each incremental step should pay for itself by providing user benefits and reduced infrastructure costs. This paper discusses the research that Lockheed Martin has performed as part of our Independent Research and Development Program (IR&D). We discuss the methodology that Lockheed Martin is using to develop a SWIM architecture for NextGen and the incremental deployment of that architecture. We discuss our development of data taxonomies for the five key areas (flight and flow, surveillance, weather, aeronautical, and NAS status), our development and analysis of scenarios within the context of flight data and traffic flow management, and how we then use those scenarios to develop candidate services. As part of this effort, Lockheed Martin has also prototyped a set of representative applications and enhancements to legacy ATM (air traffic management) systems to demonstrate information sharing and shared situational awareness. This paper also discusses the capabilities of those applications and the potential benefits to end users.