1

Digital NOTAMTowards a concept of operations

xNOTAM Workshop #2Brussels, 20-21 November 2007Item 2

European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation

2

Presentation objectives

Analyse digital NOTAM from an operational point of view What is a digital NOTAM Who will produce digital NOTAM Who will use digital NOTAM

3

Digital NOTAM definition

Current NOTAM

“A notice distributed by means of telecommunication containing information concerning the establishment, condition or change in any aeronautical facility, service, procedure or hazard, the timely knowledge of which is

essential to personnel concerned with flight operations.”

Digital NOTAM

“A data set made available through digital services containing information concerning the establishment, condition or change in any aeronautical facility, service, procedure or hazard, the timely knowledge of which is essential to systems and automated equipment used by personnel

concerned with flight operations.”

Event aeronautical information update

4

Digital NOTAM definition

Events “Permanent” - the effect of which will last until

the next permanent change or until the end of the lifetime of the feature

Effective at a time instant “Temporary” - changes of a limited duration that

are considered to be overlaid on the permanent state of the feature

Effective during a time period “Transient” – a new feature, with a temporary

duration (short lifetime) Effective during a time period

Aeronautical Information

Event

Digital NOTAM

5

Hierarchy of Events

Very helpful for defining application business rules

… and remarkably similar to the NSC concept!

Work in progress, in cooperation with FAA Identify usual events and

provide AIXM encoding guidelines

Event

Airport Event Airspace Event Navaid Event

Movement and Landing Area EventAirport Services Event

Displaced THR

Obstacle Event

Closed TWY Work area

RunwayCentrelinePoint(from Runway)

<<feature>>Runway

(from Runway)

<<feature>>Taxiway

(from Taxiway)

<<feature>>VerticalStructure

(from Obstacle)

<<feature>>

6

Concept of Operations - goal

Digital NOTAM Concept of Operations Provide a high-level description (graphical and

textual) of the operations to be carried out, simultaneously or in succession, for the origination, encoding and provision to the user of digital NOTAM and of related products and services.

Part of the AIM Concept

Aeronautical Information

Event

Digital NOTAM

7

Concept of Operationselements

AIXM 5

AIP

NOTAM

for peoplefor machines

Real time digital aeronautical data

Beyond AIP and NOTAM:

8

Concept of Operationselements

Data centric system Common workflow for static & dynamic data AIS products become views/reports on the data

Digital production chain Enable on-demand production

Gradual world-wide adoption NOTAM only will continue to be provided from many States for years

as long as necessary for legacy applications Until the digital NOTAM system reaches equivalent facility of usage Some current NOTAM strengths

Can be broadcasted worldwide Real Time broadcasting Can be read/printed by ops without automated AIS System Plausibility and Impact analysis covered by ops

9

Concept of Operationselements

Data encoding responsibility transferred to originator Ensure integrity Critical new role of the (former) AIS/NOTAM office

Guarantee the quality of the information Training and support to originator

Encoding of non-common situations will require special skills (deep knowledge of the data model)

“NOTAM Operator” and “static data operator” will become just “data operator”

Transitory role: legacy NOTAM editor approve output that is automatically generated touch-up machine generated text to make it more human readable

10

Concept of Operationselements

Solution completeness: create equivalent AIXM-update messages for all currently published NOTAM

However, even in a fully automated system, some information is intended for people -> supported as textual Notes

Database responsibility capability to validate and question Event notifications received from any

organisation, when they do not comply with own quality criteria Full reliance on HMI

Manual editing of AIXM messages is excluded Common situations should be fast and simple to encode Un-common situations should also be supported

11

Concept of Operationselements

NOTAM automatic generation from AIXM changes Quite obvious for A,B,C,Q fields D field

AIXM TIMESHEET complex data type – fully structured information compact and still readable - requires sophisticated algorithms

E field content may be drafted automatically “human touch” might be necessary

make it look closer to the natural language

12

Concept of Operationselements

NOTAM automatic generation - advantages Enforces standard phraseology

D and E field as main beneficiaries Uniformity in NOTAM content

Prevent excessive use of abbreviations Guarantee standard use of units of measurement

Encourages small NOTAM with individual scope and purpose instead of large generic information improving further filtering

Improved coherence between NOTAM translations same software component -> similar results

13

NOTAM validation - currently a major task for NOTAM data providers Data Service Providers Regional databases, such as the EAD

In future, changed objective Semantic analysis rather than syntactic work

Evaluation of data consistency Evaluation of impact on operations Using “semantic rules”

organisation specific whether received data require manual analysis or not

Concept of Operationselements

14

Concept of Operationselements

Generate PIB not from NOTAM, but from Event data Merge with static data Merge with other data (MET)

15

Concept of Operations

Goal Provide a high-level description (graphical and textual) of the operations

to be carried out, simultaneously or in succession, for the origination, encoding and provision to the user of digital NOTAM and of related products and services.

Part of the AIM Concept Benefit from other AIM projects

D-AIM AIS/MET Data Link CHAIN Etc.

16

Others

ATC

AirspaceDesigners

CNSInfra

structure

Airports

Data Sources

AISOrganisation

DataOutputs

AIP, Amd & SuppAICs

NOTAMPIB…

Data Users

OtherStates

OtherAirspace

User

Airlines

Pilots

ATSP

FlightBriefing

CommercialDatabaseProvidersDigital AIM

Services

Digital AIMD-AIM Increment

17

Concept of Operations

xNOTAM Project focus -> digital NOTAM origination, encoding and distribution services/interfaces

18

Concept of OperationsAI Event Submission and Distribution

ClientProduct EditorNational Reference DatabaseOriginatorOriginator National Reference

DatabaseAIS Product

EditorClient

Event

Identify affected features

Encode Event

Submit Event

Evaluate impact of Event

Get Reference Data

pre-validate?

where is data?

[local]

Could be a planned change or an ad-hoc situation

Provide Reference Data

[remote]

Generate identifier

Pre-Validate

Validate

is valid ? [no]

Originator acknoledgedMake available through

digital Service

Data user client system updated

Analyse change

need NOTAM?

Generate text NOTAM

[yes]

need AIP or chart AMDT?

Distribute NOTAM

Generate AIP AMDT, SUP and/or chart revision

[yes]

Distribute AIP AMDT, SUP or chart

NOTAM Subscriber updated

AIP / chart Subscriber updated

19

Concept of operationsData integrator and Service Provider

Receive NOTAM

Receive AIP, SUP, charts, ...

Convert to digital data

Query or Receive data

Store data

check and validate Could be replaced in future by live access to distributed data sources

legacy system interface

<<only during transition phase>>

provide data services

provide improved PIB

provide digital charts

etc.

20

Time for debate