CNS for ATM

More modern techniques and technologies which are under research in contexts other than aviation shall be investigated to consider their relevance for ATM communication, surveillance or navigation domains or to combination of these domains as they may have the capabilities to unlock unforeseen possibilities.

Intelligent network management solutions shall also be investigated to ensure that the required quality of service by applying powerful network management techniques leading to cost-effective solutions.

During the research, it shall be considered that the population of air vehicles in the considered timeframe will drastically change integrating new types of flying objects (unmanned, orbital vehicles, flying cars) which all need to be considered as “clients” of the CNS services.

Research area 1: Application of new techniques and new technologies to provide CNS services

Communication, Navigation and Surveillance are not exclusively an ATM subject; they are also being researched and used in other domains.

The objective of this research area is to consider the relevance of new and innovative techniques and technologies, being researched outside the ATM, which could support localisation of air vehicles, acquiring their position and allowing exchange of information while maintaining, as overarching principles, the upmost level of integrity and safety. A technique could support one or several CNS domains.

The research should address any potentially innovative technologies without limiting the research to technologies which are specifically being researched for the CNS/ATM; as a matter of example technologies such as laser could be explored or any other innovative techniques. In particular, the usage of techniques operating outside the spectrum currently used by aviation is encouraged.

Research shall address the integration, interoperability and openness of proposed solutions for the long term, exploiting synergies, reducing costs and optimising spectrum usage.

Research area 2: Intelligent CNS network

The objective of this research area is to address new ways of managing the CNS network through intelligent network management principles. In particular advanced techniques such as Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Neural network, etc. that could enable the network to reorganise or reconfigure in case the demand for service would significantly change in specific circumstances (e.g. a sudden increase in traffic in a specific region) or in case one or several components of the network are suffering deficiencies (e.g. technical failures, non-intentional adverse conditions (e.g. solar storm) or cyber-attacks).

Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) is one of the fundamental enablers of ATM as it supports locating and identifying air vehicles, and exchanging information with them.

The CNS services are currently delivered based on a network of technologies based on techniques which, for some of them, have been developed several decades ago and may not be as efficient as technologies being currently researched or in use in other domains.

Quality of services provided by the CNS network may suffer degradations (e.g. due to technical failures, external effects (e.g. solar storms), software issues, intentional or non-intentional disruptions (e.g. cyber-attacks)). As an example, availability is currently managed through redundancies which can have a significant cost.

The challenges to be addressed is to identify new technologies and/or configurations capable to provide the CNS services while also maintaining or improving the integrity, availability, performance and quality of these services whilst avoiding unnecessary cost and the perception of over-engineering the solutions.

Successful research in this topic will have the potential to generate high positive benefits for ATM in terms of resource efficiencies, improvements in security, increased safety and cost efficiency.