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TRIMIS

Validation of the European Air Traffic Management System (EATMS)

PROJECTS
Funding
European
European Union
Duration
-
Status
Complete with results
Project Acronym
AVENUE
STRIA Roadmaps
Network and traffic management systems (NTM)
Transport mode
Airborne icon
Transport policies
Decarbonisation,
Societal/Economic issues

Overview

Background & Policy context

The predicted growth in air traffic calls for more efficient use of

existing capacity in the air transport system. This is a key goal of the

European Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. However, there wasn’t a wide

consensus within the ATM community on which future concepts, functions and

systems could best improve air transport capacity, efficiency and safety.

To speed up the definition and the introduction of the next generation

European ATM system, the key ATM players had to develop a more detailed

common understanding of issues and solutions, a definition of common

requirements and a joint commitment to development plans for validation

activities.

Objectives

The AVENUE project aimed to build the basis of the validation platform of the future European Air Traffic Management System (EATMS), starting from previously validated inputs from the Commission, Eurocontrol and national research projects throughout Europe. In particular, the main objectives of the project were:

  • The provision of the system architecture of a validation platform capable of supporting the large-scale demonstration and validation initiatives of the EATMS;
  • The development of the first instance of that platform to test its architecture and allow early validation exercises;
  • To obtain a wide consensus in the architecture definition and platform development within the ATM Community.

Funding

Parent Programmes
Institution Type
Public institution
Institution Name
European Commission; Directorate-General for Energy and Transport (DG TREN; formerly DG VII)
Type of funding
Public (EU)

Results

The AVENUE project has produced, with the consensus of the Air Traffic

Control (ATC) key players, a set of Application Programming Interfaces

(APIs) and an ATC data dictionary. The project has proved the correctness

of an open architecture for validation platforms with a first instance

which was built with more than twelve existing ATM components provided by

key European ATC players. The technical exercise has successfully

demonstrated the capability of the developed facility.

No validation of any individual concept or system has been carried out by

the project. Instead, the project demonstrated that the developed

architecture works fine, the adaptation of different components is

feasible and the platform instance is suitable for early validation

exercises.

Besides validation services, the developed platform is able to integrate

any representative ATM components, being it an open, flexible and modular

“environment” which enables evolution, integration, interoperability and

growth. An agreed set of “de facto” system standards has been reached

which permits the exchange of components at a software level and direct

comparisons of results.

Policy implications

From the experience of the AVENUE project it is clear that short-term

efficiency can be sacrificed if the aim of the project is to involve all

the key players in a specific field in order to obtain consistent and

shared results. Wide consensus needs time and efforts.

The agreed API set and ATC data dictionary can be at the basis of large

scale real-time validation activities in the future. Even if the API set

of the project can be considered as a “de facto” standard for validation

platforms, its correctness for operational system must still be

demonstrated.

Future research projects will still have to do a significant step: from

the architecture of validation platforms to the architecture of the

operational systems. The AVENUE activities will be followed up in the Gate

to Gate project of the Fifth Framework Programme which is using the AVENUE

architecture to integrate and perform test trials of the candidate ATM

components, Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) enablers and

operational procedures. The final goal is to make recommendations for

standardisation and implementation of an operational platform for a

European ATM in the medium term.

Partners

Lead Organisation
EU Contribution
€0
Partner Organisations
EU Contribution
€0

Technologies

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