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Shadow operations of the “ATM Data as a Service” project have been successfully completed, Eurocontrol said. Air traffic controllers at Slovenia Control’s Ljubljana Area Control Centre completed the operations in Slovenian airspace using data processed remotely at Eurocontrol’s Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC).
The project is a three-year effort that aims to develop and deploy a prototype to demonstrate that ATM data can be provided as a service from an operational ATM environment to one or more civil air traffic service units by a single distributed ATM system. It contributes to Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR), Eurocontrol said, by deploying new technologies and best practices.
So far, Eurocontrol said, the project has completed three phases. Phase 1 was completed June 2016. The next step was successfully completed March 2017. That stage demonstrated the use of an open interface between the MUAC flight data processing system and Slovenia Control’s controller working positions/human-machine interface.
Phase three was completed last month. That involved a distributed flight data processing system at MUAC and Slovenia Control, and served controller working positions/human-machine interfaces either remotely or locally. Eurocontrol said it provides essential data on how to deploy a data center from which an ATM data service provider can deliver services with proper contingency and disaster recovery. The last shadow operation focused on seamless transition of ATM data services. Eurocontrol said this allowed switchovers of remote and local flight data processing system without any impact on operations.