Integrating avionics standards with ground air traffic management systems to meet 2025 operational needs

Airspace Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), are looking forward to transforming their operations to better meet the increased demand for Air Traffic Control (ATC) services and to also provide increased efficiencies for users and service providers. One of the major transformations in this domain that is expected to occur over the next decade is a shift from current flight plan based operations towards 4-Dimensional (4D) Trajectory Based Operations (TBO). In order to be able to evolve and transform current air traffic operations towards 4D TBO, a conceptual understanding of how aircraft capabilities and the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system will work together is required. For the airborne systems, standards committees, composed of industry and government stakeholders, set minimum operational performance standards (MOPS) and minimum aviation system performance standards (MASPS). These standards, developed over different timeframes and by different committees, need to be exercised in an integrated manner to highlight operational dependencies and gaps. This paper describes three scenarios that were developed as a basis for potential operational use of airborne capabilities that are envisioned to serve as enablers for 4D TBO. These capabilities include: Datacom, Interval Management (IM), Required Time of Arrival (RTA), Weather Forecast Uplinks, and Dynamic Required Navigational Performance (DRNP). A closed-loop batch simulation was then constructed that allowed the scenarios to be exercised under different conditions and using different combinations of RTA and IM for meeting ATC time and speed clearances. The research's preliminary results focused on three key aircraft capabilities: Flight Management System (FMS) forecast winds, DRNP and airborne spacing capabilities. Analysis of these simulation results led to a set of observations about how these different airborne functions inter-played.