Ready, steady... go! Validations recently got underway by partners in the SESAR JU iSNAP project on a next-generation air traffic management system. The project is making use of state-of-the-art digital technologies and underlying architecture to support the move towards virtual centres and delegation of airspace, key components of the Digital European Sky.

The aim is to introduce new features into the iTEC (interoperability Through European Collaboration) ATM platform to enable it to process greater volumes of air traffic data and reduce inefficiencies in aircraft routes through service delegation. The new functionalities will provide control centres with greater flexibility and scalability, improving on safety and on-time service, and optimising costs.

In addition, the project aims to address different areas of the platform, not only defining the related technical and architectural improvements in it but also implementing them and performing validation activities to assess whether they are feasible and suitable.

Between 24 and 25 April, the project carried out validations addressing the platform’s middleware and communications at Indra's facilities in Torrejón de Ardoz. During the exercise, air traffic control applications were decoupled from the communication layer and updated with distributed data.

The exercise validated the platform in five different scenarios, focusing on different information exchanges in varying operational contexts, e.g. tactical inputs form the controller working position; messages from adjacent centres, data grid functionalities, etc.

 With this validation exercise, considered as a laboratory test, the middleware and communications evolution should reach the maturity needed for implementation (i.e. TRL6), paving the way to system wide information management, enabling the seamless information access and interchange with users of ATM information and services.

“Thanks to the work done on this first solution, we can see the creation of a new communications interface, a more modern and up-to-date interface to the innovative iTEC SkyNex system. This technological evolution of the iTEC platform will be a key factor in the transformation of the European Digital Sky and in line with the European ATM Master Plan,” said Mayte Cano, Coordination of iSNAP.