21 New RTCA Standards for the Avionics Industry

[Avionics Today 12-11-2014] The Radio Technical Commission for Aeronatics (RTCA) published 21 total new or updated documents (DO) in 2014. These documents are developed by RTCA’s Special Committees (SCs) to help to shape the certification and safety of new and existing aviation technology equipment to be implemented onboard aircraft. 

 

Among the new, existing and emerging technology that was focused on by RTCA’s special committees in 2014, include Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards (MASPS) and Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for Traffic Alert & Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) avionics and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) avionics. The majority of the new and existing standards have been updated and created to help Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) to address identified and emerging trends in the technical performance area. 

 

"Ultimately the FAA is the one that will make a request," said Andy Cebula, vice president of strategy and programs at RTCA, regarding the work that goes into developing and updating standards documents. "But the source could come from a need identified by the industry or a need identified by the FAA. Its normally a combination, a recognition that a particular standard that’s in place is in need of revision and maybe the technology has exceeded the ability of the standard to govern or there’s a new and emerging technology."

 

RTCA’s Program Management Committee oversees the organization’s 21 different special committees. All of the different committees are tasked by the FAA with looking at specific terms of reference around different aircraft systems and components, as well as Air Traffic Management (ATM) and airport technology and equipment. The following list features the 21 new or updated DOs published or updated by RTCA Special Committees; along with the date and the committee number, as of November 30, 2014: 

 

 

Issued 02-20-14 • Prepared by SC-223

 

This document contains Minimum Operational Performance Standards for both the Airborne Component and Ground-Based base station of the Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communication System (AeroMACS). Compliance with these standards is recommended as one means of assuring that the equipment will perform its intended function(s) satisfactorily under all conditions normally encountered in routine aeronautical operation. 

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-214

 

Change 1 to DO-224C provides multi-frequency refinements for VDL Mode 2 Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards (MASPS), operating/system parameters, technical descriptions and other considerations to be taken into account when determining compliance.

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-214

 

Change 1 to DO-280B addresses three different improvements; to permit the selection and acceptance of CPDLC messages, containing HF, SAT and UHF frequencies by ANSPs at the Oceanic/Continental boundaries; to optimize the transfer of CPDLC connections; and to optimize the transfer of voice communications within the same ATSU.

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-214

 

Change 1 to DO-281B provides multi-frequency refinements for the VDL Mode 2 Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) and test procedures to be taken into account when determining compliance and certifying aircraft VDL Mode 2 equipment.

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared bu SC-186

 

This document defines and allocates the set of minimum requirements for the end-to-end operational, safety, performance, and interoperability aspects for implementations of the TSAA application. The TSAA application augments flight crew traffic situation awareness by providing alerts of traffic that is detected in conflict with ownship in support of the see-and-avoid responsibility. The TSAA application supports the out-the-window visual acquisition of traffic through voice annunciations of alerted traffic, visual cues, and additional symbology to supplement the plan-view depiction of traffic on a Traffic Display, when equipped. Visual cues of Nearby Airborne Traffic are provided by the TSAA application when equipped with a Traffic Display.

 

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-206

 

This standard document contains an initial set of industry supported delivery method recommendations for those applications and uses described in RTCA document DO-340, Concept of Use (ConUse) for Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) and Meteorological (MET) Data Link Services. A further service defined in RTCA DO-339, Aircraft Derived Meteorological Data via Data Link for Wake Vortex, Air Traffic Management and Weather Applications Operational Services and Environmental Definition (OSED) is included in the recommendations. These recommendations cover architectural, information sourcing, security, and allocation processes. This document supports the data communications needs of future Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts (e.g., Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and potentially provides input for future efforts by the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) initiatives). A key objective of these future ATM concepts is to establish the aircraft as a primary participant in collaborative decision making (CDM), and in some cases, establish airspace regions for autonomous operations where the aircraft is primarily responsible for safe separation from other traffic, wake turbulence, weather, and designated/restricted airspace.

 

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-214

 

This standard provides the operational, safety, and performance requirements (SPR) for the implementation of data communication services that support Air Traffic Services (ATS). It provides the provision of data communications in all operational environments e.g., continental, oceanic, and surface. It is intended to support the communication element of the implementation of communication, navigation, and surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) systems in worldwide application.

 

 

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-214

 

This standard provides the interoperability requirements (INTEROP) standard for the implementation of the Air Traffic Service (ATS) applications supporting the Baseline 2 data link services as specified in the Baseline 2 Safety and Performance Requirements (SPR) document DO-350. This document addresses the interoperability of the ATS applications using the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN). It represents the minimum set of interoperability requirements and allocations necessary to provide adequate assurance that the elements of the communication, navigation, and surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) systems are compatible with each other, and when operating together, will perform their intended function. 

 

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-214

 

This standard provides the interoperability requirements for an aeronautical telecommunication network for Baseline 2 ATS data communication services (B2) ground system that provides B2 air traffic data link services to future air navigation system 1/A (FANS 1/A) aircraft in oceanic and continental airspaces. This document provides interoperability requirements for the B2 ATN ground system to provide FANS 1/A aircraft with B2 data link services, and interoperability requirements to ensure seamless transition of ATS communications for bilingual aircraft (i.e., aircraft equipped with FANS 1/A and ATN data link technologies transitions from a FANS 1/A ground system to a B2 ATN ground system and vice versa).

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-214

 

This standard defines the backward compatibility interoperability requirements on air and ground systems compliant with the ATS Interoperability Standard in order to support the CDR, IER, ACM and AMC services when talking to Baseline 1 (B1) ground and air implementations. This document provides interoperability requirements for the Baseline 2 (B2) ground systems to interoperate with known B1 compliant airborne implementations and interoperability requirements for the B2 aircraft system to interoperate with known B1 compliant ground implementations. It also provides a separated set of requirements for each of these two capabilities, which can be implemented and qualified independently.

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-228

 

This White Paper contains the Plan and Description for development of Phase I Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Detect and Avoid (DAA) system.

 

 

Issued 03-18-14 • Prepared by SC-228

 

This White Paper contains the Approach and Considerations for development of Phase 1 Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Command and Control (C2) Data Link.

 

 

Issued 06-17-14 • Prepared by SC-222

 

REQUIREMENTS FOR INMARSAT SWIFTBROADBAND AMS(R)S EQUIPMENT Appendix E to DO-262(B) 

 

This new appendix to DO-262 provides information and requirements specific to an Aircraft Earth Station (AES) using the Inmarsat SwiftBroadband system for the purpose of providing Aeronautical Mobile Satellite (Route) service (AMS(R)S). The International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Telecommunications Union reserve the designation "(Route)" for services related to the "priority and regularity of flights along national and international air routes". This document forms a technique-specific appendix to DO-262 containing the minimum operational performance standards for AES equipment that provides SwiftBroadband communications. 

 

 

 

 

Issued 06-17-14 • Prepared by SC-186

 

This document considers functional requirements consisting of: airborne surveillance and separation assurance processing (ASSAP), and cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) as described in the Aircraft Surveillance Applications (ASA) Minimum Aviation System Performance Standards (MASPS), RTCA DO-289, and in the Safety, Performance and Interoperability Requirements documents for the applications approved by RTCA SC-186 and EUROCAE WG-51: ATSA-AIRB (DO-319/EUROCAE DOCUMENT ED-164), ATSA-VSA (DO-314/ED-160), ATSA-ITP (DO-312/ED-159) ATSA-SURF (DO-322/ED-165), TSAA (DO-348/ED-232), and CAVS (DO-354/ED-233). Operational performance standards for functions or components that exceed the stated minimum requirements are identified as optional features. 

 

 

DO-317B incorporates the following differences from DO-317A: 

 

Traffic Situation Awareness with Alerts (TSAA): Traffic Situation Awareness with Alerts (TSAA) is an application that is intended to reduce the number of mid-air collisions and near mid-air collisions involving general aviation aircraft. TSAA provides voice annunciations to flight crews to draw attention to Target Aircraft and also adds visual cues to the underlying basic traffic situation awareness. The TSAA application uses ADS-B information, and where available, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Rebroadcast (ADS-R) and Traffic Information Service-Broadcast (TIS-B) information to provide the flight crew with indications of nearby aircraft in support of their see-and-avoid responsibility. 

 

 

 

 

 

Issued 06-17-14 • Prepared by SC-186

 

The Supplement to DO-317B is a single zip file archive that contains test data files for scenarios described in Sections 3.2.7 through 3.2.14 and Appendix U. Additionally, this data supplement contains sample MATLAB implementations of an airborne surveillance processor (described in Appendix C), an In-Trail Procedure (ITP) application (described in Appendix S), and a Traffic Situation Awareness with Alerts (TSAA) application (described in Appendix T). Appendix I describes the test data generation processes. The data files for any particular test scenario reflect all surveillance sources required for the test procedure (e.g., ADS-B, ADS-R, TIS-B, and TCAS). Test data files are provided separately for 1090ES, UAT, and VDL4 installations where necessary, due to the differences in state vector construction for each link. 

 

 

Issued 06-17-14 • Prepared by SC-186

 

This document provides the minimum operational, Safety and Performance Requirements (SPR) for the implementation of the Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) Assisted Visual Separation (CAVS) application. This document does not provide any Interoperability Requirements (INTEROP) as they are identical to those defined for the Enhanced Visual Separation on Approach (VSA) application (DO-314). To increase runway capacity, operations at some airports are based on a flight crew maintaining own separation from the preceding aircraft. The Enhanced VSA application has been developed and standardized to enhance this type of operation. CAVS is intended to further enhance the VSA application. 

 

 

 

Issued 06-17-14 • Prepared by SC-216

 

This document is a resource for civil aviation authorities and the aviation industry when the operation and maintenance of aircraft and the effects of information security threats can affect aircraft safety. It deals with the activities that need to be performed in operation and maintenance of the aircraft related to information security threats. 

 

This document also provides guidance that is related to operational and commercial effects (i.e. guidance that exceeds the safety-only effects). Thus, it also supports harmonizing security guidance documents among Design Approval Holders (DAHs), which is deemed beneficial to DAHs, operators and civil aviation authorities. It is a companion document to DO-326A that supports security in the development and modification part of the airworthiness process.

 

 

Issued 08-06-14 • Prepared by SC-216

 

This updated document is issued in parallel with DO-355 to address developmental and continuing airworthiness concerns. It is intended to augment current guidance for aircraft certification to handle the threat of intentional unauthorized electronic interaction to aircraft safety. It adds data requirements and compliance objectives, as organized by generic activities for aircraft development and certification. This document is the “core document” of a series of documents on Aeronautical Information Systems Security (AISS) that together, will address information security for the overall AISS of airborne systems with related ground systems and environment. It is intended to be used in conjunction with other applicable guidance material referenced.

 

 

 

 

Issued 09-23-14 • Prepared by SC-227

 

The Change 1 adds to the minimum standards contained in DO-236C and contains the updates to the original Time of Arrival Control (TOAC) requirements and guidance material from DO-236B needed for initial operational applications as well as 4D Trajectory Based Operations (TBO). Change 1 builds upon the requirements and guidance that were derived by EUROCAE WG-85 from projects in the European SESAR program. This document also contains requirements for runway position monitoring and alerting when such a capability is included in a system developed with this MASPS.

 

 

 

Issued 09-23-14 • Prepared by SC-206

 

This document defines the Minimum Interoperability Standards (MIS) for the uplink and downlink message formats for Automated Meteorological Transmissions (AUTOMET). This standard also specifies a set of encoding and decoding rules to apply to the message format types defined in this document. AUTOMET message formats are independent of media and protocols used to transfer encoded AUTOMET messages. Compliance with this standard is recommended as a means of assuring that avionics equipment implementing AUTOMET software will perform their intended functions satisfactorily under conditions normally encountered in routine aeronautical operations.

 

 

Issued 09-23-14 • Prepared by SC-216

 

This document was developed in the context of DO-326A, Airworthiness Security Process Specification, which addresses type certification considerations during the first three life cycle stages of an aircraft type (Initiation, Development or Acquisition, and Implementation), and DO-355, Information Security Guidance for Continuing Airworthiness, which addresses airworthiness security for continued airworthiness. 

 

The methods and considerations of this document address the assessment of the acceptability of the airworthiness security risk and the design and verification of the airworthiness security attributes as related to system safety and airworthiness. More specifically, this document addresses: 

• Guidance for accomplishing the activities identified in DO-326A in the areas of Security Risk Assessment and Effectiveness Assurance

• Specific methods for Security Risk Analysis and Network Security Domains