Aeronautical cabin services
From Blindside
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[edit] What is it
CSIA issued a paper on 19 March on adoption by the aviation industry of commercial off-the-shelf products, under the banner of the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN). This is intended to support a number of data communications functions between mobile platforms, aviation companies and government authorities, as identified at [B]:
a. Air Traffic Management (ATM), consisting of the safety-critical services of: i. Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) ; ii. Air Traffic Control (ATC) ; b. Flight Information Services (FIS) – non-control, advisory information needed by pilots to operate more safely and efficiently such as airport statuses and meteorology ; c. Aeronautical Operational Control (AOC) – flight planning, flight following, and the distribution of information to flights and affected personnel; d. Aeronautical Administrative Communications (AAC) – business-use communication for airline companies such as such as passenger lists and duty free sales ; e. Aeronautical Cabin Services (ACS), consisting of : i. Aeronautical Passenger Communications (APC) – services such as telephony, email and internet access ; ii. In-flight Entertainment (IFE) – services such as audio and video entertainment, In-flight Shopping and Gambling. YF910_06_IA010_121_ACS Page 2 of 2
3. Open Source material suggests that 2007 may well be a tipping point for the ACS component, in particular APC; other themes such as platform convergence are already the subject of CPNI effort.
4. A first effort in the provision of COTS based APC was Connexion by Boeing1, which allowed travellers to access an internet connection while on board a plane in flight through either a wired Ethernet or a WiFi (IEEE 802.11b) connection, linking back to a ground-based Point of Presence (PoP) through leased satellite transponders. The Connexion by Boeing service was launched by Lufthansa on 17 May 2004, and later participants included ANA, Asiana Airlines, China Airlines, El-Al, Etihad Airlines, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, SAS and Singapore Airlines. However, on 17 August 2006, Boeing announced that it would discontinue its Connexion service, stating that, "the market for this service has not materialized as had been expected", and the service was ceased on 31 December 2006.
5. The availability of wireless data services within the cabin as part of Connexion by Boeing, was notable in its own right, as it was a radical departure from the historic stance across the civil aviation regulatory community of banning the use of any Radio Frequency (RF) transmission devices in cabins throughout the Block (Stand-to-Stand) Time of flights.
6. The failure of the Early Adaptor, however, does not necessarily indicate the APC concept is itself flawed, as the market is set to launch 2 sets of COTS services within the coming months.
7. Two competing offerings to airlines are being prepared to use “pico-cell” (low power GSM base station) technologies on board aircraft, linked to satellite backhaul connections, which will allow air-ground voice and data communications (both SMS and GPRS) to be made from passengers’ own handsets rather than from specialist equipments provided in the cabin. The presence of the pico-cell, and antenna inside the cabin, means that the Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) safety concerns from multiple simultaneous use of GSM handsets which could potentially ramp to full power when trying and reach to external basestations (both the aircraft fuselage and distance are innate attenuators) can be sidestepped; the pico-cell, even though much lower power, will intrinsically always provide the strongest anchor signal and thus obviate the handsets training up to full power.
8. The two consortia that will be offering this service are: • AeroMobile2, a joint venture between the North American ATN backbone provider, ARINC3, and Telenor4, a Nordic telecommunications operator • OnAir5, a joint venture between the other ATN backbone provider, SITA6 (itself owned by a consortium of international airlines), and Airbus7, Boeing’s main competitor in manufacture of airliners
9. Despite the commercial problems encountered by Connexion by Boeing, the concept of providing internet connectivity from the cabin is not dead, with two new organisations planning to offer a similar service within the next 12 months: • The Australian based ASiQ8 • AirCell of the USA9
10. It is therefore recommended that APC be included in the scope of Technology Forecasting, and that this updated information is factored into CPNI interactions with the Aviation sub-sector.
1 http://www.connexionbyboeing.com/ 2 http://www.aeromobile.net/ 3 http://www.arinc.com/ 4 http://www.telenor.com/ 5 http://www.aeromobile.net/ 6 http://www.sita.aero/ 7 http://www.airbus.com/ 8 http://www.asiq.com/ 9 http://www.aircell.com/ See presentation by Bob Stephens of Tectura to Nasa about why IPv6 is the right architecture for ATN.
[edit] Impact & Maturity assessment
We rate the impact of this issue as 1, the lowest level. Both commercial providers and existing regulatory bodies should be able to manage this process without much in the way of UK government guidance. We rate the maturity of this at 3, noting that the services discussed are being implemented at the time of writing.
This may need to be re-evaluated as location-based services may impact performance inn air. Example: If a wireless device receives regular updates of services available near it, will it receive continuous updates due to speed of location change? Aircraft will carry their own mobile phone 'mast' and have shielding from ground-based antennas. However, perhaps the aircraft should designate a pre-fixed and spoofed geographic location.
Pace of change: On September 25, Scirus.com returned 140 patents for 2007, compared with 233 for 2006.
[edit] Information Assurance issues
Answer: what seem to be the likely information assurance issues of the emerging technology under discussion.
Will automated messages to multiple users impact performance?
[edit] Implications For UK Government
As mentioned above, perhaps mobile antennas placed in air cabins for passenger use should spoof a fixed geographic location to prevent being overwhelmed by location-based messages.
[edit] Timescale
The timescale of this issue is current (less than 18 months).
[edit] Examples
[edit] Comments (attributed)
What people say about this emerging technology (attributed)
[edit] Organisations
Groups which have a particular contribution or point of view about this emerging technology, eg tech businesses, user organisations or advocacy groups
[edit] Documents & research papers
Very brief abstracts or links to informative documents, presentations or academic research papers about this emerging technology
[edit] Experts (academic, practitioner)
Links to academic experts or expert practitioners and commentators on this emerging technology
