Eurocontrol has completed the first phase in defining an architecture that it hopes will become the reference for the future European air traffic management system (ATM) system and the regulations to be developed for the planned Single European Sky (SES), writes Julian Moxon.
National ATM systems use a variety of system architectures, resulting in insufficient integration and interoperability. The Overall ATM/CNS Target Architecture (OATA) programme will, says project manager Alessandro Prister, "establish a reference point at a functional level" for the stakeholders. This will provide a common architecture for the planned future ATM/communications, navigation and surveillance system that will be instrumental in the SES. The first phase defined the initial target architecture for 2011. The second, due for completion in 2005, will incorporate ongoing developments in the ATM industry, air navigation service providers, airlines, airports and military organisations.
OATA will be applied first to service providers with older ATM systems, while newer architectures such as that used by the UK's National Air Traffic Services will migrate later.
Source: Flight International