ARINC 658

Description / Abstract: This document represents the consensus of industry. This document describes airline objectives (while also considering the ground side when possible) towards the development and introduction of advanced data communication protocols and services that meet the safety and performance requirements of aviation for the year 2020 and beyond.

In the implementation of data communications, three distinct elements need to be considered:

1. Applications

2. Communication networks over which the applications are running

3. Physical links² of the network interface as shown in Figure 1-1.

While this document focuses primarily on the ATN/IPS communication networks, it provides some information for the other two elements as required for reference.

Currently aviation uses two networks: The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) network and the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN/OSI) infrastructure. These two existing networks are aviation-unique and the need for improvements has already been identified. The aviation industry desires a modern, off-the-shelf, efficient, and robust network infrastructure common to both Air Traffic Services (ATS) and Aeronautical Operational Control (AOC) safety³ services.

A new network infrastructure for safety services, the ATN Internet Protocol Suite (ATN/IPS), based on commercial IP will meet this need. Accordingly, the industry is preparing ARINC Standards that will define the ATN/IPS for aeronautical safety services. The resulting documents are expected to be based upon updated versions of the ICAO Document 9896 defining the agreements in ICAO for ATN/IPS and on prevalent commercial IP network technology (e.g., IETF RFC 2460 for IPv6) with the modifications necessary to support aeronautical safety services.

It is anticipated that ATN/IPS will use multiple line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight subnetworks that operate in the protected spectrum allocated by ITU and ICAO for

² The physical links are also referred to as communication media or subnetworks.

³ The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defines a “safety service” as any radio communication service used for the safeguarding of human life and property. ICAO Annex 10 refines that definition to a “service reserved for communications relating to safety and regularity of flights”, specifically ATS and AOC “safety communications” as defined in ICAO Document 9718.

Purpose

It is generally agreed by aviation stakeholders that the future aviation network communication infrastructure will be based on selected commercial Internet Protocol (IP) standards. This future aviation communication network has been referred to in ICAO as Aeronautical Telecommunication Network/Internet Protocol Suite (ATN/IPS1) and is considered as the successor in the long term of the previously defined International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) network infrastructure based on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and referred to as ATN/OSI. The ATN/IPS network will be implemented onboard an aircraft and in the ground infrastructure to support safety related services, including Air Traffic Services (ATS) and Aeronautical Operational Control (AOC).

The Airlines Electronic Engineering Committee (AEEC) has initiated the development of the required avionics standards to support ATN/IPS. The ATN/IPS standards development is complex and needs to be coordinated with other partner organizations such as ICAO, EUROCAE, and RTCA. Furthermore, the exact scope and the potential impact on aircraft communication functions, such as applications and communication media, need to be understood. In addition, there may be interdependencies with related industry standards and those that need to be developed by other organizations.

The first step is the analysis and capture of the high-level user requirements for ATN/IPS focusing on the airline, but also considering the ground users (Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs)), requirements, investigating what is needed for ATN/IPS standardization for aviation, taking into account the current and/or expected plans of the other standardization organizations, and focusing on identifying what standards need to be developed by the AEEC for ATN/IPS. The outcome of this first step is a detailed plan for the work to be carried out by the AEEC in the second step defining the ARINC Standards for ATN/IPS, as well as general recommendations for the general ATN/IPS standardization work that is required in aviation. These recommendations are expected to be valuable input and feedback to the ATN/IPS standardization groups of ICAO, EUROCAE, and RTCA.

The second step in this process is the execution of the recommendations coming out of the Step 1 in relation to the effort to develop ARINC Standards for ATN/IPS.

This document is the outcome of the activities under the first step above. As such, it provides a so-called “roadmap” for the development of the aviation standards for ATN/IPS for Aeronautical Safety Services. This document recognizes the broad use of the existing datalink infrastructure components and protocols. It describes the steps necessary to transition to ATN/IPS. The recommendations are intended to be evolutionary and are expected to be implemented in a step-wise fashion.

In addition, this document describes data communication services necessary for operation in the evolving Communications Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) environment expected for the FAA NextGen, the European Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) and the Japan