1

ACP-WGW04/IP03
/
InternationalCivilAviationOrganization
INFORMATIONPAPER / ACP-WGW04/IP-03
09/14/11

AERONAUTICALCOMMUNICATIONSPANEL (ACP)

FOURTHMEETING OF THE WORKINGGROUP OF THE WHOLE

Montreal, Canada14 – 16September2011

AgendaItem4: / FutureEvolution of Ground-Ground Message Systems, Including SWIM

Air Traffic Service Message handling System (AMHS) Implementation

Status Between FAA and Other ICAO Regions

(Presented by Hoang Tran)

SUMMARY
This paper convey the status of AMHS implementation in FederalAviation
Administration (FAA) and its adjacent ICAO regions.
ACTION
The meeting is invited to note the implementation status and take advantage ofthe network for other applications.

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1The FAA has implemented the AMHS since 2005 with Japan Civil Aviation Bureau(JCAB) that was based on ICAO Doc. 9705 Edition developed by Aeronautical Telecommunication Panel that was merged to Aeronautical Communication panel. The AMHS has been upgraded to comply with ICAO Doc. 9880 and ICAO Doc. 9705 Edition 3 developed by ACP WG I.

1.2The FAA has since implemented AMHS with United Kingdom and in the process to cutover AMHS service with Fiji in October 2011.The researchprogram on AeronauticalMIMOsystemstarted in April 2008, and will be completed in March 2011.

1.3The figure 1,2,3, 4, and 5show the AMHS network in Asia/Pacific, European, North American/Caribbean, and South American regions in association with FAA.

Figure1. Asia/Pacific Regional AMHS Backbone

Figure 2 Asia/Pacific Regional AMHS Network

AMHS connections:

  1. Australia-Fiji
  2. Hong Kong, China-Macao, China
  3. India-Singapore
  4. Japan-USA
  5. Fiji-USA (October 2011)

Note: All States using AFTN terminal has option to maintain their AFTN terminal or replace with Personal Computer (PC) based AMHS User Agent that can support higher speed based on internet protocol.

Figure 3 European/North Atlantic Regional CIDIN/AMHS network

AMHS Connections:

  1. Germany-Spain
  2. United Kingdom-USA

Note: Per AFSG report, twelve States in the region are in the testing phase

Figure 4 North American and Caribbean Regional AFTN

Figure 5 South American regional AFTN/AMHS Network

AMHS Connections:

  1. Argentina-Paraguay(Operational testing)
  2. Columbia-Peru
  3. Guyana-Suriname

Note: Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay are in the final phase for operational testing

  1. DISCUSSION
  1. DISCUSSION
  2. The transition from Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network (AFTN) is proceeding very slow due to telecommunication infrastructure constraint between States and not strictly adhered to AFTN specification as specified in ICAO document as well as keeping up to date of ICAO Facility Identification.
  3. Most of the transition issues are related to operational procedure. The AFTN operational procedure is based on operators to scan and modify the message using bilateral agreement between adjacent centers while AMHS is operated automatically and will reject all messages that are not complied with ANNEX X and unknown addresses.
  4. Many of the automation application is still using character based International Alphabet Number 5 (IA-5) a modified subset of American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) interface that can only be supported by AFTNand AFTN/AMHS Gateway. This continuestoAMHS implementation. However, the AMHS would allow automation application to bypass IA-5/ASCII interface without the need to build a gateway.
  5. The AMHS network can be used to support ground-ground network for LINK 2000+/Datacom through either IP SNDCF or TCP/IP.
  6. It is highly recommended that the separation ofoperationand networkbetweenground-ground and air-ground for LINK2000+/Datacom. This will allows States an independent capability to monitor and measure the performance of vendor provided air-ground service.
  7. The AFTN can be modified to support Internet Protocol (IP) network but additional coordination and modification are required to support tracking and distribution. This will be a time consuming process and additional cost to States.

3.ACTIONBY THE MEETING

3.1The ACP WGW is invited to note the information and consider the AMHS network to support other services.

ACP-WGW04-IP03-FAA AMHS Implementation Status