MP 06W0000016R1

AviationSimNet Federation Object Model

Release Date: August 2006 Version: 2.0 Authored by the AviationSimNet Standards Working Group Published by The MITRE Corporation

Sponsor: The MITRE Corporation Contract No.: MITRE Technology Program Dept. No: F053 Project No.: 02MSR055-H3

The contents reflect the views of the author and The MITRE Corporation and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Department of Transportation (DOT), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or any other AviationSimNet™ partner. Neither the FAA, the DOT, NASA, nor other AviationSimNet partners make any warranty or guarantee, expressed or implied, concerning the content or accuracy of these views.

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited.

©2006 The MITRE Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Center for Advanced Aviation System Development McLean, Virginia

iii

Abstract

AviationSimNet™1 is a set of standards and a specification for conducting distributed Air Traffic Management simulations among disparate organizations. MITRE and others in the aviation community developed AviationSimNet to reduce cost, time, and risks of evaluating and fielding new concepts by collaboratively identifying applications and simulation resources for distributed concept evaluation.

AviationSimNet relies on the use of the High Level Architecture (HLA) [3][4][5] as a vehicle for data communications. The HLA specification [3] defines the use of a federation to include a common object model. The common object model is called the Federation Object Model (FOM). This document describes the AviationSimNet FOM. The AviationSimNet specification [1] declares the use of a single maintainable FOM to support the federations executed through that specification.

The FOM is being maintained and revised through collaborative coordination among members of the AviationSimNet Standards Working Group (WG). It will be maintained independently of the AviationSimNet Specification. The AviationSimNet FOM will continue to evolve as necessary to support future distributed simulations. As such, it will be modified and extended as deemed necessary by the Standards Working Group.

This document was co-authored by the organizations participating in the AviationSimNet Standards Working Group. To date, organizations participating in AviationSimNet include: Airline Pilot Association (ALPA), The Boeing Corporation, Center for Applied ATM Research (CAAR) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), Crown Consulting, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, MITRE Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center, NASA Langley Research Center, Raytheon, and UPS.

This is the second published version, Version 2.0, of the AviationSimNet FOM. Version 2.0 of the FOM is authored by the AviationSimNet Standards Working Group and published by MITRE on its behalf.

All published versions of the AviationSimNet FOM are available on the AviationSimNet website [2].

KEYWORDS: AviationSimNet, HLA, FOM, distributed simulation, aviation

1 AviationSimNet™ is a trademark of The MITRE Corporation.

iv

Acknowledgments

The following organizations are participants in the AviationSimNet Standards Working Group which is responsible for defining the FOM: Airline Pilot Association (ALPA), The Boeing Corporation, Center for Applied ATM Research (CAAR) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), Crown Consulting, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, MITRE Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center, NASA Langley Research Center, Raytheon, and UPS.

v

Table of Contents

Section Page

1. Background 1-1

2. Version History 2-1

3. AviationSimNet Federation Object Model 3-1 3.1 Object Model Identification 3-1 3.2 Data Type Definitions 3-2 3.3 Aircraft Object 3-4

3.3.1 Aircraft Object Attributes 3-4 3.3.2 Aircraft Object Attribute Definitions 3-6 3.3.3 Simulation Interactions and Definitions 3-12 3.3.4 Simulation Parameters 3-12 3.3.5 Simulation Parameter Definitions 3-13

List of References RE-1

Glossary GL-1

vi

List of Figures

Figure Page

1-1. AviationSimNet Standards Working Group Participants 1-1

List of Tables

Table Page

2-1. Version History 2-1

3-1. Object Model Identification Table 3-1

3-2. Data Type Definitions 3-2

3-3. Aircraft Object 3-4

3-4. Aircraft Object Attributes 3-4

3-5. Aircraft Object Attribute Definitions 3-6

3-6. Simulation Interaction Classes and Definitions 3-12

3-7. Aircraft Object Parameters 3-12

3-8. Aircraft Object Parameter Definitions 3-13

1-1

Section 1

Background

AviationSimNet was conceived in 2003 by The MITRE Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) and developed through its internal research and development program. Building on experience in distributed air traffic control (ATC) simulation, MITRE identified a need to extend simulation capabilities beyond the limitations of a single laboratory, and beyond the existing pair-wise establishment of distributed simulations.

Through the use of AviationSimNet, the aviation community, industry and academia will be able to leverage existing simulation assets at disparate organizations to aid in research and advancements in ATC, expediting the promotion of concepts from the laboratory to the field.

This capability is being facilitated by advancements in network and communications technologies, as well as industry standards in simulation.

AviationSimNet is a collaborative effort with industry, academia, and government agencies. As depicted in Figure 1-1, organizations participating in AviationSimNet to date include: Airline Pilot Association (ALPA), The Boeing Corporation, Center for Applied ATM Research (CAAR) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), Crown Consulting, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, MITRE Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center, NASA Langley Research Center, Raytheon, and UPS.

Figure 1-1. AviationSimNet Standards Working Group Participants

1-2

AviationSimNet makes use of the Department of Defense (DoD) High Level Architecture (HLA) for data communications. HLA uses a Federation Object Model (FOM) to share data among participants in the AviationSimNet federation. For more information on HLA and FOM, see References 3, 4 and 5 in the List of References provided in this document.

The AviationSimNet FOM will continue to evolve. It will be modified and extended as deemed necessary.

2-1

Section 2

Version History

Table 2-1, contains the FOM version history and describes the changes that have been made since its inception. It includes the version number, the month and year published, a summary of changes, and additional comments for clarification of the changes.

Table 2-1. Version History

Version Number

Month and Year Published Author(s)

Summary of Changes Comments

1 October 2005

The MITRE Corporation

• Initial version of FOM

This document was published prior to forming the AviationSimNet Standards Working Group (WG). Although the Standards WG was not yet formed, MITRE did consult with several organizations, who are now members of the Standards WG, in preparing this version of the FOM.

2 August 2006

AviationSimNet Standards

Working Group

• Refined the aircraft state object.

• Wherever possible, identified standards for attributes in the aircraft object

This is the first version of this document authored by the AviationSimNet Standards WG. All future versions will be authored by the Standards WG. Future versions of the FOM will extend beyond the aircraft state object as AviationSimNet continues to evolve.

3-1

Section 3

AviationSimNet Federation Object Model

This section of the document contains Version 2.0 of the AviationSimNet Federation Object Model as agreed to by the AviationSimNet Standards WG.

Section 3.1 contains the object model identification.

Section 3.2 contains the data type definitions that will be used by the AviationSimNet FOM.

Section 3.3 contains the details in the FOM for the aircraft object and aircraft interactions.

At this time, the AviationSimNet FOM contains one object and six interactions. The AviationSimNet Standards Working Group is evolving the FOM to include additional data to support a wider range of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) simulations identified by the AviationSimNet Applications Working Group.

3.1 Object Model Identification

Table 3-1. Object Model Identification Table

Category Information

Name AviationSimNet

Version 2.0

Date 05262006

Purpose For support of building federations compatible with the AviationSimNet specification.

Application Domain

Distributed Air Traffic Control Simulation

Sponsor AviationSimNet Standards Working Group

POC (Title, First, Last)

Mr. David Bodoh

3-2

Table 3-1. Object Model Identification Table (Concluded)

Category Information

POC Organization MITRE Corporation

POC Telephone 703-983-5561

POC Email dbodoh@mitre.org

3.2 Data Type Definitions

Table 3-2. Data Type Definitions

Data Type Description

char An 8-bit quantity with numerical value between 0 and 255 decimal.

double An IEEE 64-bit double.

float An IEEE 32-bit float.

long A two's complement 32-bit integer (INT32) value in the range -2^31 ... 2^31 - 1.

short A two's complement 16-bit integer (INT16) value in the range -2^15 ... 2^15 - 1.

unsigned long

An unsigned 32-bit integer (UINT32) value in the range 0 ... 2^32 - 1.

unsigned short

An unsigned 16 bit integer (UINT16) value in the range 0 ... 2^16 - 1.

3-3

Table 3-2. Data Type Definitions (Concluded)

ID Text

long long A two's complement 64-bit integer (INT64) value in the range -2^63 ... 2^63 - 1.

unsigned long long

An unsigned 64-bit integer (UUNT64) value in the range 0 ... 2^64 - 1.

string A one-dimensional array of 'chars' which is terminated with a NULL (0 value) char.

boolean An 8-bit field where only the least significant bit is used.

3-4

3.3 Aircraft Object The aircraft object in the AviationSimNet FOM is the truth representation of the aircraft

in the simulation.

Table 3-3. Aircraft Object

Aircraft Class

aircraft

3.3.1 Aircraft Object Attributes In addition to the data presented in the following tables for the aircraft object attributes,

the following apply: Cardinality is “1” (See Reference 4), the Delivery Category is “reliable” (See Reference 3) and the Message Ordering is “receive” (See Reference 3).

Table 3-4. Aircraft Object Attributes

Object Attribute Data Type Units Update Type

uniqueID unsigned long N/A Static

flightID string Static

tailNum string Static

aircraftType string Static

wakeCategory char H,M,L Static

engineType char P,T,J Static

latitude double degrees Periodic

longitude double degrees Periodic

altitudeMSL float Feet Periodic

aircraft

altitudeAGL float Feet Periodic

3-5

Table 3-4. Aircraft Object Attributes (Concluded)

Object Attribute Data Type Units Update Type

trueHeading float degrees Periodic

pitch float degrees Periodic

roll float Degrees Periodic

groundTrack float Degrees Periodic

groundSpeed float knots Periodic

trueAirSpeed float knots Periodic

verticalSpeed float Feet per minute Periodic

landingGear unsigned short percentage Conditional

flaps unsigned short percentage Conditional

lights unsigned short binary bitfield Conditional

addrModeS unsigned long hexadecimal number

Static

airborne boolean 0 or 1 Conditional

ssrMode char A,S,C Static

beaconCode unsigned short octal number Static

timestampSeconds unsigned long seconds Periodic

timestampMilliseconds unsigned short milliseconds Periodic

Aircraft

equipage string N/A Static

3-6

3.3.2 Aircraft Object Attribute Definitions As much as possible, standards are referenced for each attribute in the aircraft object.

The definitions for the attributes contain some of the information from the references. For more detailed information, please see the references cited.

Note that there is no padding with white space for any attribute in the aircraft object.

Table 3-5. Aircraft Object Attribute Definitions

Class Term Definition

uniqueID

Object identifier that uniquely identifies the aircraft object across the federation. This value can be used to reference a specific flight from other message attributes or parameters containing the ID.

flightID ICAO-4444 [9] aircraft identification filed in a flight plan. Up to 8 characters, including null terminator.

tailNum ICAO-4444 [9] identifier of the airframe used by the flight. Up to 8 characters, including null terminator.

aircraftType ICAO-4444 [9] and ICAO 8643 identifier of the aircraft equipment type. 2 to 4 characters, plus the null terminator.

wakeCategory ICAO-4444 [9] /ICAO-8643 wake category of the airframe. Valid values are "H" for heavy, "M" for medium, and "L" for light.

Aircraft

engineType Propulsion category of the airframe. Valid values are "P" for propeller, "T" for turboprop, or "J" for jet.

3-7

Table 3-5. Aircraft Object Attribute Definitions (Continued)

Class Term Definition

latitude WGS-84 current latitude location of the flight. -90.0 (south pole) to +90.0 (north pole). This position is relative to the aircraft's center of mass.

longitude WGS-84 current longitude location of the flight. -180 (west of Prime Meridian) to +180 (east of Prime Meridian). This position is relative to the aircraft's center of mass.

altitudeMSL WGS-84 current altitude measured above mean sea level. This position is relative to the aircraft's center of mass.

altitudeAGL Current altitude measured above ground level. This position is relative to the lowest part of the extended landing gear.

trueHeading Current orientation of the airframe in the horizontal plane tangent to the surface of the earth measured in degrees east of true north. This value is irrespective of the plane's path of motion.

pitch Current pitch angle of the airframe relative to the horizontal plane. Measured from zero (parallel with the horizontal plane) to 180 (nose up), and from zero to -180 (nose down).

Aircraft

roll Current roll angle of the airframe relative to the horizontal plane. Measured from zero (parallel with the horizontal plane) to 180 (left wing up), and from zero to -180 (right wing up).

3-8

Table 3-5. Aircraft Object Attribute Definitions (Continued)

Class Term Definition

groundTrack Current tracking angle of the aircraft relative to the ground. Measured in degrees east of true north. In the absence of wind, this value would be identical to trueHeading.

groundSpeed NAS-MD 314 [8] current speed of the aircraft relative to stationary ground.

trueAirSpeed NAS-MD 314 [8] current true airspeed of the aircraft relative to its airborne environment.

verticalSpeed Current rate of change of altitude.

landingGear Percent to which the landing gear is in the engaged position. Valid values range from 0 (landing gear fully retracted up) to 100 (landing gear fully engaged down).

flaps Current percentage of flaps deployed from 0 (flaps fully retracted) to 100 (flaps fully extended). Note: This attribute is expressed as a percentage as opposed to degrees as it is intended for use by visual systems in the distributed simulation.

lights A 2-byte bitfield of on/off status, where each bit represents a lighting system on the aircraft, where 1 indicates "on" and 0 indicates "off", according to the following structure, from least significant bit (0), to most significant bit (15): beacon, navigation, strobe, wing, logo, left runway turnoff, right runway turnoff, unused, left outboard landing, right outboard landing, left inboard landing, right inboard landing, and nose landing.

Aircraft

addrModeS Unique 6 hexadecimal digit SSR address identifying the aircraft in a radar environment. The value is stored in the 24 least significant bits. The remaining high bits are unused.

3-9

Table 3-5. Aircraft Object Attribute Definitions (Continued)

Class Term Definition

airborne Current status of being on ground (0) or airborne (1).

ssrMode Current transponder mode. Valid values are "A" for Mode A, "S" for Mode S or "C" for Mode C.

beaconCode NAS-MD 313 [7] Beacon code ranging from 0000 to 7777 (octal) or 4095 (decimal).

timestampSeconds Logical time at which the accompanying attributes are valid. Measured in seconds since Midnight GMT, 1/1/1970.

Note: The publisher must use current logical time. The subscriber can use the timestamp to make adjustments as to when the aircraft truly had these values in the local time context.

Aircraft

timestampMilliseconds Portion of the update timestamp representing the number of milliseconds appended to the timestampSeconds for additional accuracy.

Note: Publishing or subscribing this attribute is useful only with the timestampSeconds attribute.

equipage ICAO string of characters describing communications and navigation capabilities of the airframe. Two classes of equipage are specified, separated by a slash "/".

Preceding the slash, the indicators are as follows:

(N) if no equipment for the route to be flown is carried, or the equipment is unserviceable

(S) if standard COM/NAV equipment for the route to be flown is carried and serviceable

(A) LORAN A

(C) LORAN C

3-10

Table 3-5. Aircraft Object Attribute Definitions (Continued)

Class Term Definition

Aircraft equipage (D) DME

(E) EGWPS

(F) Not implemented yet

(G) GPS/GNSS

(H) HF RTF

(I) INS (Inertial navigation)

(J) Data link

(K) MLS

(L) CDTI (Cockpit Display of Traffic Information)

(M) Omega

(O) PDS (Pair Dependent Spacing),

(P) Doppler

(R) RNAV/RNP/RNPC

(T) TACAN (U) UHF RTF

(V) Autonomous Operation Planner

(W) RVSM

(X) MNPS

(Y) CMNPS

(Z) other

3-11

Table 3-5. Aircraft Object Attribute Definitions (Concluded)

Class Term Definition

Aircraft equipage Following the slash the indicators are as follows for describing the serviceable SSR equipment:

(N) Nil

(A) Transponder Mode A

(C) transponder mode A and mode C

(D) ADS-B

(X) transponder mode S without pressure altitude or aircraft identification transmission

(P) transponder mode S with pressure altitude but without aircraft identification transmission

(I) transponder mode S without pressure altitude but with aircraft identification transmission

(S) transponder mode S with both pressure and aircraft identification transmission

3-12

3.3.3 Simulation Interactions and Definitions

Table 3-6. Simulation Interaction Classes and Definitions

Term Definition

Pause Trigger message to halt simulation time advancement. Available for the sake of federates who are not otherwise involved with time management.

Resume Trigger to indicate that the simulation clock is starting. Will be sent at least once at the start of the simulation, and other times, only after a Pause message has been sent.

Shutdown Notification from the simulation authority that the simulation should be terminated immediately.

StartSimTime Notification that the simulation authority has defined a common logical time for all federates to set their internal clocks prior to time advancement.

3.3.4 Simulation Parameters The Cardinality for all parameters in the aircraft object is ‘1’.

Table 3-7. Aircraft Object Parameters

Interaction Parameter Data type Units

StartSimTime timeSeconds unsigned long seconds

3-13

3.3.5 Simulation Parameter Definitions

Table 3-8. Aircraft Object Parameter Definitions

Interaction Term Definition

StartSimTime timeSeconds Seconds since midnight GMT 01/01/1970.

RE-1

List of References

1. Bodoh, D. J., et al, October 2005, AviationSimNet Specification, MTR 05W0000061, The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA.

2. www.aviationsimnet.net.

3. Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO), 1997, HLA Interface Specification Version 1.3.

4. Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO), 1997, Object Model Template Specification (Version 1.3).

5. Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO), 1997, HLA Rules (Version 1.3).

6. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), October 4, 2004, National Airspace System Configuration Management Document Computer Program Functional Specifications Message Entry and Checking, Model A5f1.5 NAS MD-311.

7. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), October 4, 2004, National Airspace System Configuration Management Document Computer Program Functional Specifications Flight Plan Positioning Processing and Beacon Code Assignment, Model A5f1.5 NAS MD-313.

8. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), October 4, 2004, National Airspace System Configuration Management Document Computer Program Functional Specifications Local Outputs, Model A5f1.5 NAS MD-314.

9. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Thirteenth Edition 1996, Procedures for Air Navigation Services Rule of the Air and Air Traffic Services, Doc 4444-RAC/501.

GL-1

Glossary

ADS-B Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast ALPA Airline Pilot Association ATC Air Traffic Control ATM Air Traffic Management CAAR Center for Applied ATM Research CAASD Center for Advanced Aviation System Development CDTI Cockpit Display of Traffic Information CMNPS Canadian Minimum Navigation Performance Specification DME Distance Measuring Equipment DoD Department of Defense EGWPS Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System ERAU Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University FAA Federal Aviation Administration FOM Federation Object Model GMT Greenwich Mean Time GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System GPS Global Positioning System HF High Frequency HITL Human-in-the-Loop HLA High Level Architecture ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers INS Inertial Navigation LORAN Long Range Navigation MLS Microwave Landing System MNPS Minimum Navigation Performance Specification NAS National Airspace System NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration PDS Pair Dependent Spacing RNAV Area Navigation RNP Required Navigation Performance RNPC Required Navigation Performance Capability RTF Radio Transmission Frequency RVSM Reduced Vertical Separation Minima SSR Secondary Surveillance Radar TACAN Tactical Air Navigation UHF Ultra High Frequency WG Working Group

GL-1

WGS World Geodetic System