Page 16 - ITU-T Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring - Key findings, recommendations for next steps and future work

ITU-T Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring
Key findings, recommendations for next steps and future work

3.3.2.2.4 Flight data monitoring

Every airline already has a flight data monitoring application utilized for post-flight data analysis. Although
not designed for real-time flight data monitoring, these systems may be adapted for real-time flight data
monitoring use cases. There are also ground software solutions that may be cloud based, which are used for
flight tracking that may also support real-time flight data monitoring, reporting and alerting.

3.3.2.2.5 Airborne infrastructure
These are the data link systems on board that may already support transmission of flight data or could easily
be adapted to transmit flight data. There are numerous data links on board aircraft today each connected
with different aircraft systems and each with a varying aircraft equipage, varying service coverage around the
globe and each with a varying bandwidth.

3.3.2.2.5.1 On-board information systems infrastructure
• Aircraft flight data management and recording solutions are the systems on board today that are used
to collect, process, analyse, store and forward flight data via available links that may include or may be
connected with off-board data links.
• Aircraft interface devices (AID) are discrete devices or avionics interface functions hosted in other avionics
systems that are designed to safely provide flight data and connectivity services to other less critical or
non-certified systems such as installed or portable electronic flight bags (EFBs).
• Aircraft condition monitoring system (ACMS) has real-time access to all the flight data parameters on
the aircraft and is used to perform real-time analysis and reporting. ACMS is programmable by airlines
or by ACMS vendors without need for recertification. This means it is relatively easy to modify ACMS on
aircraft to include sending an increased number of reports in support of real-time flight data monitoring.
• Of all the on-board information systems, ACMS has access to the richest source of data on all aircraft
types. ACMS is connected with ACARS and can use all the data links available to the ACARS router. ACMS
also provides much larger data to aircraft servers and some quick access recorder (QAR) units that
also function as IP data routers transmitting flight data post flight. These routers, if they are connected
with and/or integrated with ACMS, are well placed to provide flight data for streaming. ACMS is user
modifiable software (UMS) and can support triggering and sending anything from small amounts of data
up to full black box data or more. Moreover, this can be easily changed without need for costly aircraft
recertification.
• All the other on-board information systems listed can send data via ACARS but they cannot support
flight data streaming. They are not easily connected to satellite communication (SatCom) data links and
it is not easy to change triggering or data content sent on all these systems. ACARS airline operational
communication (AOC) has a reprogrammable capability but it is very limited to aircraft flight data
compared to ACMS.
• Flight deck ACARS data link systems are already used to perform flight tracking. Together with the
flight management system (FMS), ACARS enables automatic dependent surveillance-contract (ADS-C).
Since FMS, ACMS and AOC capabilities are all integrated with ACARS, these may be used to expand
flight tracking without installing additional equipment on the aircraft. With ACMS and AOC being user
modifiable software (UMS), they are particularly well suited to hosting trigger algorithms that could be
used to implement abnormal and autonomous distress tracking. With the fullest access to flight data
parameters, ACMS is most likely the best suited and could be used for abnormal and autonomous distress
tracking. The downside of using ACARS data links is their high transmission cost, but depending on the
usage level which should be expected to be low, this may not be a major concern.
• Current flight deck data link systems are not suited to full flight data streaming due to the narrow bandwidth
and high transmission costs of these data links and due to the fact that flight deck communications is not IP
based today but is really designed around messaging using special Aeronautical Radio Inc. (ARINC) protocols.

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