A Method for SWIM-Compliant Human-in-the-Loop Simulation of Airport Air Traffic Management

Thomas Gräupl,Carl-Herbert Rokitansky,Martin Mayr

doi:10.1155/2016/6806198

Abstract

System Wide Information Management(SWIM), as envisioned by theSingle European Sky Air Traffic Management Research(SESAR) program, is the application of service oriented architectures to the air traffic management domain. Service oriented architectures are widely deployed in business and finance but usually tied to one specific technological implementation. SWIM goes one step further by defining only the semantic layer of the application integration and leaving the implementation of the communication layer open to the implementer. The shift from legacy communication patterns to SWIM is fundamental for the expected evolution of air traffic management in the next decades. However, the air traffic management simulators currently in use do not reflect this yet. SWIM compliance is defined by semantic compatibility to theAir Traffic Management Information Reference Model(AIRM) and a SWIM service may implement one or more communication profiles, which specify a communication layer implementation. This work proposes a SWIM-compliant communication profile suitable to integrate SWIM-compliant tools into human-in-the-loop simulations for air traffic management research. We achieve this objective by implementing a SWIM communication profile using XML-based multicast messaging and extending the message format to support distributed human-in-the-loop simulations. We demonstrate our method by the evaluation of Hamburg Airport operations.

Highlights

The way air traffic management information is exchanged between stakeholders is changing
System Wide Information Management (SWIM) compliance is defined by semantic compatibility to the Air Traffic Management Information Reference Model (AIRM) and a SWIM service may implement one or more communication profiles, which specify a communication layer implementation
The objective of this paper is to present a SWIMcompliant method for human-in-the-loop air traffic management simulation that (1) uses the air traffic management information reference model as semantic interface, (2) uses multicast message passing as communication interface, and (3) enables the evaluation of SWIM-compliant air traffic management software in complex simulation scenarios

Summary

Introduction

The way air traffic management information is exchanged between stakeholders is changing. SWIM was envisioned by the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) program. This program defines a framework for the sustainable modernization of the European air transportation system. The air traffic management system is considered one of the most complex systems ever built, but many parts of it were not designed to be integrated with each other. This leads to a multitude of point-to-point connections between its subsystems using proprietary data formats. The SWIM service oriented architecture shall provide the infrastructure, data formats, and protocols to share information between all air traffic management subsystems in a scalable and interoperable way. The actual implementation of the messaging protocol and message brokers may vary and is open to the implementer

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion