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DATA LINK COMMUNICATION INTERFACE WITH FLIGHT SIMULATOR IN FORM OF A CPDLC Henrich GLASER-OPITZ1 – Leonard GLASER-OPITZ2 – Ján LABUN3 Abstract:
The implementation of data link is one of the key operation improvements that will reduce voice channel congestion to enhance air traffic capacity while providing safety improvements. In order to accommodate the expected growth in air traffic, the new option of data communication will enable evolution of ATC working method. CPDLC (Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication) complements traditional voice communication and provide benefits to ATC (Air Traffic Control) efficiency, capacity and communications to improve safety and efficiency of air traffic management. For purpose of this research was developed software application (DLCSim) simulating communication between pilots and ATCo (Air Traffic Controller) based on EUROCONTROL requirements. Interface between data link and flight simulator will enhance interaction between pilot and ATCo and opens new options for pilot and ATC training with modern technologies currently used in aviation.
Keywords: Data link, CPDLC, Flight Simulator, EUROCONTROL
1. INTRODUCTION The objective of CPDLC is to improve the safety and efficiency of air traffic management. To address this problem an application for simulation data link communication between pilots and ATCo was developed (DLCSim). During the development all important aspects of the simulator and procedures were consulted with expert from EUROCONTROL organization, air traffic controllers and technicians working for Slovak Air Traffic Services, and pilots operating on airplanes like B737, or ATR 72-600 on regular basis. To enhance the interaction between pilot and ATCo and create more realistic environment for ATCo and pilot training in a way of coordination the basic aircraft control procedures and communication procedures, DLCSim is designed to cooperate with flight simulator software like Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX) or Prepar3D. This paper is focused on the simulation capability and platform for experimentation.
2. THE DATA LINK SIMULATOR DLCSim in current version is an application designed to simulate controller-pilot data link communication in a procedural training and/or with radar control to control traffic from FSX of Prepar3D. This version allows sending the messages important for ATCo-pilot communication, defined by EUROCONTROL in LINK2000+. DLCSim provides also actual METAR data for specified airport where ATCo is connected to. The whole graphical user interface (GUI) is designed to meet EUROCONTROL requirements for human-machine interface (HMI) for ATCO and pilot workstations.
2.1
Procedural Control
For procedural control, DLCSim consists of two main modules : ATC Module (Figure 1) and Pilot Module (Figure 3). ATC Module consists of 6 main parts: 1) Posts dock widget 2) METAR dock widget 3) Main text window 1
- Ing. Henrich Glaser–Opitz, Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Aeronautics, Department of Avionics. Contact: Technical university of Košice, Faculty of Aeronautics, Rampová 7, Košice,
[email protected] 2 - Ing. Leonard Glaser–Opitz, Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Aeronautics, Department of Air Transport Management. Contact: Technical university of Košice, Faculty of Aeronautics, Rampová 7, Košice,
[email protected] 3 - Assoc. Prof. Ján Labun, Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Aeronautics, Department of Avionics. Contact: Technical university of Košice, Faculty of Aeronautics, Rampová 7, Košice,
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Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference Modern Safety Technologies in Transportation 2015
4) 5) 6)
Time dock widget Label dock widget Strip dialog window (see Figure 2)
Figure 1 DLCSim ATC Module The ATC Module (Figure 1) provides respectively list of all connected aircraft (pilot-client application) and airport centres (ATC-client application). Traffic is divided into three color coded groups – inbound, outbound and overflight. Every received message is accompanied with sound notification to reduce the chance of missed communication. METAR dock widget provides actual time (or after synchronization) in UTC format and basic METAR data – actual for selected airport. Main text window serves as communication window for all incoming and outcoming messages. Label dock widget provides basic information about selected aircraft and interface to send quick messages to pilots. Strip dialog window provides all necessary information about selected aircraft and its flight in a form of a Strip (Figure 2).
Figure 2 DLCSim ATC Module – Strip Dialog Windows
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The Pilot Module (Figure 3) consists of four main parts: 1) Menu push buttons 2) Basic info labels 3) Keyboard 4) Text label
Figure 3 DLCSim Pilot Module The Pilot Module provides user interface for pilots to communicate with ATCO via text messages. For every received message Pilot Module offers to choose either from predefined group of answers (WILCO, ROGER, etc.) or prepare the answer created based on received message (FL, radial, point reports, etc.). Pilot Module is available also for Android, providing exactly the same functionality as Windows version. Pilot Module was deployed for Android so experiments can be performed on flight simulator more easily using tablets to replace original touchscreen in aircraft cockpit. All necessary information about DLCSim can be found on [1].
2.2
Radar Control
For radar control, DLCSim provides a radar display from where the ATCo is capable to control and communicate with pilot module via working data link communication.
Figure 4 DLCSim Radar Data Link Interface
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Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference Modern Safety Technologies in Transportation 2015
This Radar display is capable to visualize the received flight data from flight simulator on a radar map. Among the direct data link communication, it provides functionality required for ATCo for successful airspace control. For example:
− ATCO can determine the 0-6 minute flight prediction and flight history of up to 10 last positions. − ATCO can measure the closest point of convergence of two aircraft − Radar also provides short time conflict alert (STCA), which is accompanied by sound alert in 1 second interval until the STCA alert lapse. (Figure 5) − Radar provides detection of emergency transponder codes, what fires up regular color change of aircraft’s label. (Figure 5)
Figure 5 DLCSim Radar – Emergency Example (STCA)
3. DLCSIM – FLIGHT SIMULATOR COMMUNICATION INTERFACE The main set of data required to perform the simulation consists of: flight plan information, providing for each flight, operating airline, departure and arrival airports, and flight path; Radar track data, providing information on the actual position, including altitude, of the aircraft at regular time intervals; Meteo data. From the collected recordings, a number of parameters can be measured or computed for each flight, at a frequency equal to the radar data frequency (typically every 5 seconds): − Rate of climb/descent (ROCD), determined from radar data either directly (if present in the radar information fields) or by computation from altitude and time information; − True airspeed (TAS), by applying the wind triangle formula to the ground speed (from radar data) and wind speed (from weather forecast); − Calibrated airspeed (CAS) or Mach number, using the TAS to CAS/Mach conversion formulas with the computed TAS value, the altitude (from radar data) and the temperature (from weather forecast). Flight data are transferred via client application (Figure 6) from flight simulator in a 5 second interval. However all transferred flight data are actualized immediately when they are changed.
Figure 6 DLCSim Data Export Interface
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So far we have selected 15 parameters to be transferred, to test the basic functionality of radar display and interaction with aircraft on radar. This parameter selection enables us to test missing data and ATCo reaction in such situation. Among other, the flight simulator data export is being developed for the purpose of future research and development of landing system, where we will need to test the developed system for various combinations of available/missing onboard navigation data.
Figure 7 DLCSim Server Application All data are transferred to client application via server application (Figure 7). The whole communication between all client applications and flight simulator is based on server-client communication using TCP/IP communication protocol.
4. CURRENT AND FUTURE EXPERIMENTS DLCSim was primary developed for the ongoing experiment. The main objective of the experiment was to assess existing procedures in communication between air traffic controllers (ATCo) and pilots in the approach phase of flight, the impact of using data link (D/L) communications and new procedures on traffic flow, and the air traffic controllers and pilots overload with respect to mutual communication. Objectives were specified for general use of data link communications for procedural control as follows: − Reduce number of orders − Define common errors − Eliminate errors using D/L − Create user friendly environment software application for ATCo − Create electronic only environment − Identify usage of combination of voice and D/L communication − Compare congestion using voice and D/L communication Added objectives for pilots: − Research congestion for pilots using D/L − Measure time needed for response
Figure 8 DLCSim Experiment Operational Room Results and conclusions from this experiment can be found in [2]. Mentioned experiment was based on the procedural control, but in the future we will focus also on radar control environment using DLCSim and Flight Simulator platform to measure the effect of using data link in various phases of flight on both pilot and ATCo. ISBN 978-80-971432-2-0 (PRINT) ISBN 978-80-971432-3-7 (CD-ROM)
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Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference Modern Safety Technologies in Transportation 2015
5. CONCLUSION This paper provides an overview of the developed software application DLCSim for procedural and radar control using data link communication. Implementation of CPDLC system is important in current situations, when we are trying to solve the voice channel congestion. The data link communication proves itself as a tool for significant decreasing voice communication congestion and reducing controller´s workload. Simulation of such system can help to assess existing procedures in communication between ATCO and pilot in various phases of flight. Developed DLCSim offers many possibilities to gather important information throughout research of general use of data link communication for procedural or radar training, to identify usage of combination of voice and data link communication and to compare congestion using voice and data link communication in every phase of flight. It has to be noted, that DLCSim is still in development process. Among using DLCSim for experiments connected with data link communication and its implementation in various phases of flight, DLCSim shows up to be also a great tool for both pilot and ATCo training. Establishing the working connection between flight simulator and ATC simulator (DLCSim) opens new options for pilot and ATCo training with enhanced interaction and so can bring significant improvements to existing ATCo and pilot training process.
REFERENCES [1] Glaser-Opitz, H – Glaser-Opitz, L: DLCSim User Manual, available online, ; last accessed [8.5.2015] [2] Glaser-Opitz, L: Means of Using CPDLC with ATC Procedures in Terminal Maneuvering Area, Diploma thesis, Košice: Technical University Košice, Faculty of Aeronautics, 2015 [3] Slovak Republic eAIP, available online ; last accessed [8.5.2015] [4] LINK 2000+ France real-time simulation project, EEC report No. 395, EUROCONTROL. [5] EUROCONTROL: Single European Sky Regulations: Regulatory Approach For Data Link Services, 2006. [6] Damir Poles, Angela Nuis, Vincent Mouillet, EUROCONTROL, Bretigny-sur-Orge (France): Advanced Aircraft Performance Modelling For ATM: Analysis of BADA Model Capabilities; 29th Digital Avionics Systems Conference, October 3-7, 2010 [7] Sophie Gillet, Angela Nuic, Vincent Mouillet, EUROCONTROL, Bretigny/Orge, France: Enhancement in Realism of ATC Simulations By Improving Aircraft Behaviour Models; 29th Digital Avionics Systems Conference, October 3-7, 2010
ISBN 978-80-971432-2-0 (PRINT) ISBN 978-80-971432-3-7 (CD-ROM)
16 - 18 September 2015, Zlata Idka, Slovakia http://www.mosatt.org
(PRINT) ISSN 1338-5232 (CD-ROM) ISSN 1338-5240
