SITTI in the SESAR HAVEN Project

HAVEN (Highly Automated and Virtualised ATS Platform for En-route & TMA Operations) is a SESAR 3 industrial research project under Work Area 3-1. This project is funded by the European Union.

It aims to design, prototype and validate the next generation of air traffic services (ATS) platforms for the Digital European Sky. The consortium combines THALES entities, several air navigation service providers and industries, among which SITTI and Sopra Steria Group (SSG).

• Two targeted solutions

TS-1, “Enabling advanced operational concepts“, addresses the functional evolution of the ATS platform to support trajectory-based operations (TBO) and demand-capacity balancing (DCB). It covers higher levels of automation, tools to reduce environmental impact, wider use of air/ground exchanges using voice and CPDLC, and future ATC-ATC exchange mechanisms.

TS-2, “Architecture and infrastructure of future ATS platform“, focuses on flexibility, scalability and resilience. It explores the New Service Delivery Model (service-oriented architecture, interchangeable services) and the deployment and operation of ATM services in the cloud. It also assesses cyber-security, standardisation and certification implications.

Both solutions target TRL6 by the end of the project, starting from elements at TRL4 and, in some cases, TRL2.

• SITTI’s role

SITTI is a world leader in integrated systems for air traffic control, with a particular focus on voice communication systems (VCS), voice recorders and gateways. In HAVEN it provides its MULTIFONO® VCS, enhanced with a functional interface to Thales’ TopSky-ATC One. This gives the experimentation platform complete functional coverage, since voice remains essential even as CPDLC and machine-to-machine exchanges take over routine tasks. SITTI’s software runs on distributed COTS hardware platforms in a virtualised environment, which keeps VCS and ATC sub-systems physically separate.

SITTI contributes to both solutions:

• In TS-1, the SITTI VCS is part of the validation platform for the automation tools (real-time simulations with expert operators) and for flexible sectorisation within the DCB stream, moving from TRL4 to TRL6. SkyLab is also connected to SITTI VCS and to DSNA’s innovation platform. This gives access to a machine-learning speech recognition service (“Scribe”) and a voice-based safety net (“Cross Check”) that verifies clearances are consistent with voice communications.
• In TS-2, SITTI takes part in the innovative services work, notably the “Voice as a Service” concept, in which voice functions are delivered to controller working positions as a cloud service. It also takes part in the “ATM in the cloud” stream, which tests use cases such as public/private cloud operation, shadow mode and seamless upgrades.

SITTI’s contribution also has a standardisation dimension. It chairs the EUROCAE WG-126 group, which defines interface standards between VCS and ATC systems. Together with Thales, SITTI will extend WG-126’s ATC/VCS interoperability use cases within the cloud experiments, so the project’s results can feed future standards.

Overall, SITTI’s participation shows that voice communication can be integrated into a highly automated, virtualised and cloud-based ATS platform without losing the resilience and safety that controllers rely on.

Read more here: https://www.sesarju.eu/news/building-air-traffic-control-platform-future