Virtual Centre

Project Information

PJ32-W3 VC

Grant agreement ID: 101017587

DOI

10.3030/101017587

Project closed

EC signature date 15 December 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 31 May 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 15 214 484,25

EU contribution

€ 5 579 565,38

Coordinated by

EUROCONTROL - EUROPEAN ORGANISATION FOR THE SAFETY OF AIR NAVIGATION
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - PJ32-W3 VC (Virtual Centre)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Virtual Centre concept allows an innovative Virtual Centre architecture between ATSU and ADSP, enabling that a volume of airspace be controlled by one ATSU or another, e.g. depending on the availability of resources (business continuity, operational flexibility), or in order to provide service in the case of contingency (resilience). This is referred in the AAS as the “capacity-on-demand” service.
Complementing the Delegation of Airspace amongst ATSUs (SESAR Solution PJ10-W2-93) for what concerns the airspace delegation, and investigating the cross-border use of the DAC concept (SESAR Solution PJ09-W2-44), the Virtual Centre Wave3 proposal aims to further validate the airspace delegation in the Virtual Centre context (airspace delegation for two ATSUs (part of two different Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) but also including ATSUs within the same ANSP) which can deliver service over the same volume of airspace, potentially including a cross-border rostering scheme). In addition, it aims to increase the maturity level of the Virtual Centre concept itself. The overall objective is to demonstrate the positive impact of the Virtual Centre concept on improving the Network:
• The ability to dynamically adapt to changes in capacity e.g. in case of contingency in an ATSU, traffic needs or Air Traffic Controller (ATCO) shortage;
• The Cost-efficiency through the decoupling of the ATM data provision from the ATC service provision enabling flexible, scalable and resilient ATM service provision.

The conclusions after project execution are that the concept is feasible from an operational and technical viewpoint. However, by identifying different architectures used to deploy this concept, we have also matured these different architectures at different maturity levels.
The more innovative architectures raise a number of technical and security issues that are yet to be solved, and in parallel, we identify many barriers to the VC concept that are not technical but regulatory, societal or organisational. Therefore we recommend that future research activities focus on solutions that can be deployed in the short to medium term , focusing on technical solutions that are well proven.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

At management level, we have continued to apply the processes defined during the previous reporting periods,have taken part in Virtual Centre presentations during WAC, and have prepared and attended the maturity gates for both solutions defined in the project.

The Operational Thread work performed in the reporting period includes:
- Organization of the final deliveries of key deliverables TS, OSED, VALR , CBA
- Preparation of maturity gate of solution PJ.32-W3-01 (ATFCM process in support of airspace delegation)
- Participation in communication events common to PJ10.93

The Technical Thread work performed in the reporting period includes:
- Final deliveries of last documents (contribution to 10.93 OSED, TS, VALR and CBA
- Finalization of Virtual Centre Maturity Report
- Preparation of maturity gate for solution PJ.32-W3-02 (Triangle architecture)

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

PJ32-W3-VC is exploring, defining and validating new operational concept, by adding the ATFCM aspects to the delegation processes studied in PJ10-W2-93. Technically it is defining new Virtual Centre services and studying how these services defined for ATSU can also be used among ADSPs.

The project is a key enabler to deploy the future Single European Airspace System (SEAS) underpinned by airspace reorganization, and the establishment of a common EU-wide ATM data services. Operationally and technically, it contributes to the validation of the more advanced pan-European ATM Data Service Provision Models, where independent ADSPs provide services to ATSUs and in some case other ADSPs.

The wider impact of the project are those defined in the Airspace Architecture Study, specifically the de-fragmentation of European airspace and the optimization of resources, reducing for instance the demand for staff during night or very low traffic conditions, but also allowing to dynamically respond to ad hoc staff shortfall by mobilizing staff in other centres.

The project has defined a new Virtual Centre architecture , the triangle architecture, that will lead to early deployment of Virtual Centre Services

The triangle architectures defined by the project will be further studied in SESAR 3 project such as VITACY.

Depiction of a Virtual Centre architecture studied in PJ32