Survey About the Use of TCP/IP Internetworking for Aeronautical Communications

Use of TCP/IP internetworking for aeronautical communicationsACP WGC7/WP14

Survey memorandum to ACP members

MEMORANDUM
Survey about the use of TCP/IP internetworking for aeronautical communications

From:Jean-Yves Piram, ACP WGN Rapporteur

To:Members of the Aeronautical Communications Panel

Cc:Brian Cardwell, ACP SGN1 chairman,
Robert Witzen, ACP Secretary
ACP WGN participants

1.Introduction

The ACP Working Group N (Networking) aims at producing a “Report on the use of TCP/IP internetworking for aeronautical communications”, for delivery to the ACP/1 meeting. This action is in response to the specific task allocated to WGN by the AMCP/8 meeting, among the WG’s terms of reference: “to consider the use of TCP/IP protocols in the provision of aeronautical internetworking”.

This will allow to propose an appropriate line of actions in this area, for endorsement by the ACP and approval by the ANC, prior to starting significant technical standardization work.

In the ACP WGN02 meeting (Bangkok, November 2003), the use of TCP/IP was discussed, and it was agreed to ask for the position of experts nominated by States and Organizations with regard to the use of TCP/IP, as an input to the analysis and report to be developed the Internet Communication Services (ICS) subgroup SGN1. This report will be subsequently discussed and validated by WGN.

The goal of this memorandum is therefore to query the ACP experts about the use of TCP/IP in the context of aeronautical communications, within their States and Organizations.

2.Survey method

To harmonize the format and scope of the information provided by ACP experts, a formal survey is proposed, based on a structured questionnaire. This is expected to provide the following advantages:

Ease of reply by experts by means of a structured framework,
Ease of summarization by subgroup participants,
Comprehensiveness and adequate scoping of replies by means of the proposed questionnaire.

The questionnaire to be filled in by ACP experts is therefore appended as an Attachment to this memorandum.

3.Schedule

The ACP/1 meeting is planned for beginning of 2005. In the meantime, WGN will hold two meetings, WGN03 in May 2004 and WGN04 in autumn 2004.

To meet the objective of delivery to the ACP/1 meeting, a first complete draft of the report should be submitted to WGN04. The report should be developed between WGN03 and WGN04.

To allow the report to be started at the WGN03 meeting, it is required that information be provided by ACP experts before start of the WGN03 and of the associated SGN1 meeting next May. Responses to this survey are therefore expected by the end of April 2004.

4.Conclusion

The ACP experts are kindly invited to fill in the attached questionnaire, and to return it by the end of April 2004. Responses should be sent to Brian Cardwell, ACP WGN SGN1 chairman, who will conduct the production of the report, and to Jean-Yves Piram, ACP WGN Rapporteur, who will co-ordinate the task, and ultimately present the report to the ACP/1 meeting.

The progress of the task will be discussed and reported in the future WGN03 and WGN04 meetings.

ACP WGNMemorandum – page 129-Mar-04

Use of TCP/IP internetworking for aeronautical communicationsACP WGC7/WP14

Survey memorandum to ACP members

ATTACHEMENT 1

Survey questionnaire
about the use of TCP/IP protocols for aeronautical communications

1.Information about responding State/Organization

State/Organization:______

Panel Member name:______

Panel Member e-mail address:______

2.Current use of TCP/IP in aeronautical communications

The operational use of TCP/IP protocols which is currently made by the considered organization should be described in the two following tables:

Table1 is dedicated to the use of IP networking (including also TCP and/or UDP) in support of aeronautical communications.

Table2 is dedicated to the use of application protocols of the TCP/IP environment (e.g. SMTP, Telnet, LDAP, SNMP, etc.) for aeronautical communications.

3.Intended future use of TCP/IP in aeronautical communications

The future use of TCP/IP protocols which is planned to be made by the considered organization should be described in the two following tables:

Table3 is dedicated to the future use of IP networking (including also TCP and/or UDP) in support of aeronautical communications.

Table4 is dedicated to the future use of application protocols of the TCP/IP environment (e.g. SMTP, Telnet, LDAP, SNMP, etc.) for aeronautical communications.

Mainly plans that are sufficiently mature should be reported in these tables. Potentialities should only be reported with an indication of their hypothetical nature. In this context, dates which will be given are indicative only. They will not be used to establish firm plans but rather to identify trends for the short, mid and long-term.

4.Description tables

Please note that not all rows and columns are relevant to the same organization. Typically the airborne environment is relevant only to airframe manufacturers and airline representative organizations, whilst ground-ground in the context of this survey is mostly relevant to Air Traffic Services Providers.

See following pages

Please indicate in the following table (marking a “yes” in the corresponding cell) the functional areas in which your organization is currently using IP for networking, and in which geographical scope.

Table 1: current use of IP networking by the considered State or Organization

environment / Functional area / local / national / Multi-lateral (please indicate
co-ordinating parties) / Regional (please indicate Region) / International / Comments
Airborne / Avionics
APC
Other (please specify)
Air-Ground / CPDLC
ADS
FIS/ATIS
Other ATSC / Data Link Services (e.g. DCL, FLIPCY, etc.)
AOC
AAC
APC
Other (please specify)
Ground-ground / Internationally-standardized ATC messages
(OLDI, AIDC)
Non internationally-standardized ATC messages
Ground forwarding of A/G messages
Radar data
AMHS
FMS
AIS
AAC
Non-operational
Other (please specify)

Please indicate in the following table (naming the used protocol in the corresponding cell) the functional areas in which your organization is currently TCP/IP application protocols (SNMP, SMTP, Telnet, FTP, RPC, LDAP, etc.), and in which geographical scope.

Table 2: current use of TCP/IP applications by the considered State or Organization

Please indicate in the following table (providing an indication of the target year for operational use in the corresponding cell) the functional areas in which your organization intends to use IP for networking in the future, and in which geographical scope.

Table 3: intended future use of IP networking by the considered State or Organization

Please indicate in the following table (naming the used protocol and providing an indication of the target year for operational use in the corresponding cell) the functional areas in which your organization intends to use TCP/IP application protocols (e.g. SNMP, SMTP, Telnet, FTP, RPC, LDAP, etc.) in the future, and in which geographical scope.

Table 4: intended future use of TCP/IP applications by the considered State or Organization

environment / Functional area / local / national / Multi-lateral (please indicate
co-ordinating parties) / Regional (please indicate Region) / International / Comments
Airborne / Avionics
APC
Other (please specify)
Air-Ground / CPDLC
ADS
FIS/ATIS
Other ATSC / Data Link Services (e.g. DCL, FLIPCY, etc.)
AOC
AAC
APC
Other (please specify)
Ground-ground / Internationally-standardized ATC messages
(OLDI, AIDC)
Non internationally-standardized ATC messages
Ground forwarding of A/G messages
Radar data
AMHS
FMS
AIS
AAC
Non-operational
Other (please specify)

5.Additional information

Please provide below any additional information which could be beneficial to the survey, relevant to the subject of TCP/IP communications in your State or Organization:

6.Thank you for your input above !

7.Appendix: list of acronyms

AACAeronautical Administrative Communication

ACPAeronautical Communications Panel

ADSAutomatic Dependent Surveillance

AIDCATS Inter-facility Data Communication

AISAeronautical Iinformation Service

AMCPAeronautical Mobile Communications Panel

AMHSATS Message Handling System

AOCAeronautical Operational Control

APCAeronautical Passenger Communication

ASMAir Space Management

ATCAir Traffic Control

ATFMAir Traffic Flow Management

ATISAutomatic Terminal Information Service

ATSAir Traffic Services

ATSCAir Traffic Services Communication

CPDLCController-Pilot Data Link Communication

FISFlight Information Services

FMSFlow Management Services

FTPFile Transfer Protocol

ICSInternet Communication Services

IPInternet Protocol

LDAPLightweight Directory Access Protocol

OLDIOn-Line Data Interchange

RPCRemote Procedure Call

SGN1Subgroup N1

SMTPSimple Mail Transfer Protocol

SNMPSimple Network Management Protocol

TCPTransmission Control Protocol

UDPUser Datagram Protocol

WGNWorking Group N (networking)

ACP WGNSurvey questionnaire – page 129-Mar-04