ATN application development and evaluation on ENRI ATN simulation testbed

Abstract

In 1995, development was started on an Open System Interconnection (OSI) router for the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN), which will be a vital component of the future air traffic control (ATC) environment. In 1998, OKI Electric Industry Co. Ltd. developed an original Japanese OSI router with Inter-Domain Routing Information Exchange Protocol (IDRP) compatibility on a personal computer running Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system. A trial exchanging Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC) messages between the ENRI ATN Simulation Testbed (EAST) and a testbed at Eurocontrol was successfully carried out on 17-l 8 December 1998. Currently, ATN applications, such as an aircraft position data exchanger that will also deal with the data from Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS), ATC InterFacility Data Communication (AIDC), Flight Information Service (FIS), etc., are being developed for the EAST. When designing such ATN applications, it is very important that the delay of data propagation via the ATN be taken into consideration. Empirically, it is known when the response times from the ATC system and/or pilots are greater than several seconds, this can cause stress for the air traffic controllers. In this paper, details of the EAST and the planning of the ATN application development and evaluation are described.