European Commission funding the development of ‘ATM Data as a Service’ between Slovenia Control and EUROCONTROL

The European Commission will be supporting the ‘ATM Data as a Service’ (ADaaS) three-year project between Slovenia Control and EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht UAC (MUAC). The ADaaS project is co-financed by the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to the tune of € 2.45 million. The project, which contributes to the Single European Sky (SES) by addressing the deployment of new technologies and best practices, will be monitored by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA). The initiative addresses the deployment of an interoperable and harmonised ATM system between two air navigation service providers which belong to different Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs), and as such promotes European Union (EU) wide cooperation.

The project develops and deploys a prototype to demonstrate that ATM data can be provided in an operational ATM environment as a service by one distributed ATM System to one or more civil Air Traffic Service Units (ATSUs). The existing IT infrastructure will be studied to define a roadmap for how to evolve towards a ‘state-of-the-art’ Data Centres from which an ATM Data Service Provider (ADSP) can deliver services with proper contingency and disaster recovery. The initiative is complementary to ongoing SES ATM Research (SESAR) where Common Services and Controller Working Position/HMI interfaces are being studied.

“The project builds upon the experience gained with Shared ATS System developed for the Dutch military service provider. This system has been successfully in operation since 12 December 2012. The level of ambition has been increased to meet the specific requirements of an advanced civil air navigation service provider and to fully consider the concept of Data Services” says Frank Brenner, Director General of EUROCONTROL. Similarly, Franc Željko Županič, the CEO of Slovenia Control states that “the project is a partnership between Slovenia Control and EUROCONTROL/MUAC where partners will closely cooperate with industry to achieve technical solutions which can be sustained in the long term.”

The project will also develop a cost-benefit analysis which demonstrates the benefit of the concept for the airspace users. The concept will allow ANSPs to share investments and to reduce operating costs. The future deployment of the new service concept will generate additional benefits in terms of greater reliability and redundancy, improved consistency and enhanced interoperability. Participating ANSPs will have a serious leverage to close the gap with performance targets set under the SES legislation.