Air/ground System Wide Information Management: Concept demonstration and lessons learned

In the current Air Traffic Management (ATM) environment, there is an information access asymmetry between the flight crew and stakeholders on the ground. In many cases, the flight crew, dispatchers, and air traffic manager do not readily have access to updated relevant information to collaborate in determining favorable trajectories for individual flights. This information collaboration between air crew, their dispatchers, and air traffic manager is constrained by current communication capabilities. Air/ground System Wide Information Management (SWIM) concept of operations offers a solution to overcome this communication challenge in the future. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in collaboration with industry stakeholders conceived, planned and executed an Aircraft Access to SWIM (AAtS) demonstration project to determine the feasibility of air-ground communications. The demonstration was conducted in two phases and a series of scenarios of increasing complexity leading up to initial 4-Dimensaional Trajectory (4DT) preferences exchange. Phase 1 demonstrated the ability to share advisory information with the flight crew by utilizing existing commercial data links and hardware in the flight deck. Phase 2 demonstrated the feasibility of bi-directional information exchange between aircraft and ground systems via the SWIM Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The SOA included data management service provider (DMSP), data link provider (DLP), and electronic flight bag (EFB) with software applications. The final 4DT preference exchange scenario demonstration was completed in October 2016. This paper discusses the concepts, assumptions, communication scenarios and results of the AAtS demonstration project. The lessons learned through the AAtS demonstration provide meaningful considerations for guidance on future air-ground information sharing and collaborative decision-making environment.