Page 45 - ITU-T Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring - Use cases and requirements

ITU-T Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring
Use cases and requirements

Transmission technologies Not applicable because of post-flight transmission.

4.27 Anti-terrorism and national security

Flight data and any data transmitted to and from an aircraft could be of interest for anti-terrorism and national
security organizations. Their focus is not only on situation awareness but also on training and counter-measure
development.

This use case is not further developed in this document.

4.28 Military purposes

The military may also have interest in in-flight aircraft data for instantaneous situation awareness, as well as
strategic and tactical planning.

This use case is not further developed in this document.

5 Key findings

Working Group 2 has identified 28 use cases that utilize data aggregated from an aircraft and transmitted
wirelessly in-flight to the ground for further processing and correlation.
The use cases can be categorized into two groups.

The first group contains those use cases that require that data be transmitted virtually in real time; this means
that data has to be transmitted during the flight and as quickly as possible after it has been generated. Examples
for this category are flight tracking/following, search and rescue operations or mission support with in-flight
aircraft condition monitoring.
The second category deals with use cases that do not require a real-time transmission of data and where post-
flight availability is sufficient. Two out of many examples are: approach statistics and predictive maintenance.
In this category, the potential for innovation is limited. The use cases already exist in the aviation industry, by
using post-flight downloads of the data. On some aircraft, the data is downloaded to rewritable compact discs
(CDs) or universal serial bus (USB) sticks. Other aircraft use cellular network data streaming on the ground.
However, if a central data repository is being developed, because of the real-time use cases, then also the
post-flight use cases can benefit from the repository. The airlines and MROs can use and process the data more
efficiently, compared to today's many individual companies and manufacturers specific solutions. In addition,
new applications might evolve if auto-correlation and automatic pattern recognition algorithms are applied
to the collection of all data available from an aircraft and reveal previously unseen information.

6 Recommendations

FG AC Working Group 2 recommends:

• Regulatory authorities to mandate real-time flight data streaming. The requirements for the airlines
should be identical worldwide to provide the same service levels in all airlines. Without a unified
approach, the implementations can vary significantly and the advantages of real-time flight data might
not be achieved for all airlines.

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