Remote air traffic control steps forward in Slovenia

REMOTE DATA: Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital.

Air traffic controllers at Slovenia Control’s Ljubljana Area Control Centre have successfully completed shadow operations in Slovenian airspace using data processed remotely at EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) as part of the “ATM Data as a Service” (ADaaS) project.

ADaaS, a three-year project between Slovenia Control and EUROCONTROL’s MUAC, aims to develop and deploy a prototype to demonstrate that ATM data can be provided from an operational ATM environment as a service to one or more civil air traffic service units (ATSUs) by a single distributed ATM system. The project, which contributes to the Single European Sky by deploying new technologies and best practices, is co-financed by the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to the tune of EUR 2.45 million.

In June 2016, Phase 1 of the joint project was successfully completed. The teams from both air navigation service providers were able within a limited time-period to overcome the operational and technical challenges inherent in such an innovative approach in the ATM environment.

The next step, successfully completed in March 2017, was to demonstrate the use of an open interface between the MUAC flight data processing system and Slovenia Control’s controller working positions/human-machine interface. Data processed remotely at MUAC was displayed and used on three different types of controller working positions in the Slovenia Control simulator during the second phase of shadow operations. The human machine interface’s software and tools were adapted to communicate with the newly developed gateway, acting as a mediator and allowing an open interface by applying system-wide information management (SWIM) principles.

The final phase of the demonstration (Phase 3 of the ADaaS Demonstrator) was successfully completed in October 2017. It involved a distributed flight data processing system in two locations (MUAC and Slovenia Control) and served controller working positions/human-machine interfaces either remotely or locally. Phase 3 provides essential data on how to deploy a state-of-the-art data centre from which an ATM data service provider (ADSP) can deliver services to ATSUs with proper contingency and disaster recovery. The focus of the last shadow was on seamless transition of ATM data services, which allowed switchovers of remote and local flight data processing system without any impact on operations.