Aeronautical

Introduction

Information and communications technologies (ICT) are gaining an increasingly important role for civil aviation. Although the aviation business has relied on ICT for many decades, the continuing growth in passenger numbers, short and long-haul flights, demands for advanced services and the ever-increasing pressure on available radio spectrum are all creating a need for innovation and harmonization.

Applications extend from professional services, such as air traffic control systems, to services for passengers, such as onboard telephony, and ETSI is responsible for specifying many of them. In addition, within Europe, the Single European Sky (SES) initiative has brought added political pressure to replace the traditional, highly-fragmented air traffic control structures by means of greater harmonization and an assured interoperability between systems. Here again, ETSI's expertise is being put to good use.

The Single European Sky

The Single European Sky (SES) is an initiative launched by the European Commission to reform the architecture of European air traffic control to meet future capacity and safety needs, organizing airspace and air navigation at a European rather than at a local level.

It has been estimated that air traffic will grow by 4% a year over the next 15 years, leading to an almost doubling of traffic by 2020.

The Single European Sky initiative aims to cope with this demand by: 

• Increasing capacity
• Increasing efficiency
• Enhancing safety
• Encouraging more environment-friendly operations

The initiative is based on a harmonized regulatory framework, in which the proposed technical regulation is based on essential requirements, implementing rules and standards that are complementary and consistent. In addition, great emphasis is placed on interoperability.

The modernization of the European Air Traffic Management Network will be driven by the European ATM Masterplan defined by the SESAR programme, whilst the fragmentation of the European airspace will be reduced by initiatives to create Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB).

Download the Aeronautical leaflet
Download the ATM VoIP Testing leaflet
Download the Single European Sky leaflet
Download the Harmonized Standards for Air Traffic Management leaflet

Our Role & Activities

ETSI works with other organizations, notably CEN, CENELEC, the European Organization for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE), the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to develop standards and community specifications for Air Traffic Management (ATM) equipment.

Single European Sky (SES) and the Interoperability Regulation

ETSI supports the SES initiative with the development of "Community Specifications".

According to the Interoperability Regulation EC 552/2004 Community Specifications are:

• European standards for systems or constituents, together with the
  relevant procedures, drawn up by the European Standards
  Organizations in cooperation with EUROCAE, on a mandate from
  the EC under Directive 98/34/EC.
• EUROCONTROL specifications on matters of operational
  coordination between air navigation service providers.

Systems, procedures and constituents which meet Community Specifications are presumed to be compliant with mandatory rules (essential requirements of the interoperability regulation and implementing rules).

ETSI is well-placed to support this work, given its extensive experience in producing standards for the European 'New Approach' to regulation and in assuring interoperability.

Being European standards (ENs), Community Specifications follow the same process: after approval by the responsible Technical Committee, the draft deliverable is submitted to the National Standards Organizations (NSOs) for a "public enquiry". The NSOs submit their comments to ETSI. After resolution of the received comments, the revised draft is submitted back to the NSOs for national vote.  Following adoption and publication, the EN is notified to the EC, which, if all the conditions are fulfilled, will reference the EN as a Community Specification in a listing in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). 

ETSI has created TC AERO to be the specific Technical Committee responsible for the development of SES Community Specifications. 

Air traffic management

Air traffic control relies strongly on VHF radio communications, and ETSI has developed a series of standards that cover air-ground and air-air equipment for voice and data communications.

ETSI is also developing standards under EC mandates in order to support the widespread use of solutions like "Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems" and procedures like "Airport Collaborative Decision Making" in accordance with the European ATM Masterplan.

Aeronautical electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)

Aeronautical equipment is required to meet the European Commission's EMC Directive and, where appropriate, the Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (R&TTE) Directive before being placed on the European market.

ETSI has developed Harmonized Standards which enable manufacturers to declare conformity with these Directives. The EMC requirements form part of the EN 301 489 series of European Standards: EN 301 489-1 covers requirements common to all radio equipment; EN 301 489-22 deals with special requirements for aeronautical ground stations.

The R&TTE Directive requirements for aeronautical equipment VHF communications are addressed in EN 300 676-2 and further ATM R&TTE standards are under development under mandate M/405.

Passenger applications

Today's airline passengers expect to be able to make use of the same sorts of communication services as they experience on the ground, although this is not always feasible for technical or regulatory reasons. ETSI is working with industry partners to find solutions that are intended to facilitate passenger communications in a safe and effective manner.

Telephony services onboard planes are not something new. The Terrestrial Flight Telecommunication System (TFTS), standardized by ETSI, allowed air travellers of the nineties to place calls using handsets attached to the seats. However, commercial demand for TFTS failed to sustain initial expectations, and the service has now ceased.

More recently, Boeing has been offering its 'Connexion' service through selected airlines. Connexion provided Internet access to travellers. The system used a satellite link to connect to the ground and a wireless local area network (WLAN) onboard for the access the system. Again, due to the lack of market demand, Boeing discontinued the service at the end of 2006.

GSM onboard aircraft

Many organizations have been looking at the possibility of supporting a GSM^TM service on aircraft - for instance, the ETSI SMG committee studied this as long ago as 1988. Recently there has been more activity in this area. Several companies are looking into offering onboard GSM service as a feasible commercial venture, and some airlines have issued press releases announcing trials and dates for the service.

Aircraft remain one of the few places where mobile phones are prevented from being used. Once that this restriction is removed, it can be expected that the service becomes as popular as it is on the ground. The user experience will be personalized and much like international roaming: same terminal, same agenda and, presumably, a pricing scheme similar to that for international calling. On the basis of these key differences, it is the belief of the proponents of GSM onboard (GSMOB) that this system will succeed where TFTS and Connexion failed.

ETSI has been working with European Commission and the European Conference of Posts and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) to establish regulatory arrangements, radio frequency allocations and technical solutions that would permit such a service. Further details can be found in an ETSI White Paper.

Aeronautical satellite stations

ETSI has produced European Standard EN 301 473 for Aircraft Earth Station equipment for operation in the Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Service (AMSS)/Mobile Satellite Service (MSS), and/or in the Aeronautical Mobile Satellite on Route Service (AMS(R)S)/Mobile Satellite Service (MSS).

Standards

The list of aeronautical related deliverables in draft stage is available here. 

The following is a list of recently published and frequently downloaded standards. Please use the ETSI Work Programme to find further related standards.