Download ACP-WGM-10_WP-05-VDLM3_FAA_NASA Flight Testing

ACP-WGM 10 WP-05
International Civil Aviation Organization
26/04/05
WORKING PAPER
AERONAUTICAL COMMUNICATIONS PANEL (ACP)
WORKING GROUP M-10
Montreal, Canada 23 – 26 May 2005
Agenda Item 4
Resolution of VDL Mode 3 amendment proposals
FAA/NASA Glen Research Center (GRC) VDL Mode 3
WEATHER INFORMATION – FLIGHT TESTING
(Presented by Peter Muraca (FAA))
SUMMARY
This information paper presents a flight test activity between the FAA and
NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) for a weather information system,
which utilized VDL Mode 3 as the subnetwork media with broadcast service.
1.0 Background
The FAA and NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) conducted flight testing during April 11th through
13th, 2005 at the FAA Technical Center over the Atlantic City airspace. The purpose of the flight testing
was to further validate the effectiveness and use of the VDL Mode 3 subnetwork data and voice
capabilities, while utilizing the broadcast service of the VDL Mode 3 subnetwork to disseminate
graphical and textual weather products to and from aircraft. The flight testing effort completes the series
of three separate interoperability testing sessions between the FAA and NASA Glenn (all conducted at the
FAA Technical Center), as detailed in Section 2.0.
Concisely, the first testing effort (conducted in November 04) was carried out in a laboratory environment
where all equipment for both ground and air was co-located and the radio antennas were attenuated. This
effort was successfully completed. The second test effort was also conducted in a laboratory
environment, except with no attenuation of the radio antennas, this test was successfully conducted using
the RF spectrum (March 2005). Finally, the last testing effort was conducted in April 2005, and utilized
NASA Glenn’s lear jet with installed on-board avionics for communication with the FAA’s ground
ACP_WGM10_WP05
VDLM3_FAA_NASA Flight testing
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-2system in the Air/Ground Communication laboratory, and NASA Glenn weather server, which was also
located in the laboratory. The Air / Ground communication components that were utilized for all test
efforts are shown in Attachment 1, and are described within Section 3.0.
2.0 Interoperability Testing Series
2.1 Test Series # 1 (November 15th – 18th, 2005)
Lab testing was conducted with NASA GRC, Rockwell Collins and the FAA on November 15, 2004. The
objective of conducting lab testing was to validate the effectiveness of using the VHF Digital Link (VDL)
Mode 3 communications technology as a digital data link to transmit air-to-ground weather information.
Furthermore, testing was conducted to demonstrate integration between the WINCOMM ground and
airborne computers, Rockwell Collins VDL Mode 3 avionics suite and the FAA VDL Mode 3 Ground
System when transmitting and receiving textual and graphical weather products.
Testing was conducted using the Channel Simulator, which attenuated the RF link, in the FAA Technical
Center Building 300 Air/Ground Communications laboratory. The VDL Mode 3 Ground System was
configured in the 2 Voice and 2 Data (2V2D) mode throughout the duration of testing.
During testing, the VDL Mode 3 Ground Station functioned as the link between the airborne segment and
the WINCOMM ground server and all transmissions were attenuated via the channel simulator. The GNI
interface provided a gateway to the NASA Glenn Weather Server. The GNI also provided a user
interface in which to control multiple RIU protocol engines. Prior to testing, an Internet Protocol (IP)
gateway was added to the WJHTC ground system GNI that allowed for two data services including a
broadcast service and a point-to-point request/reply link to the airborne segment. The IP protocol
provided network connectivity between the GRC Server, GNI and Airborne Segment.
During transmissions, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) was used to transfer unicast datagrams from the
GRC ground server to the Airborne segment. (The GNI gateway decoded the IP protocol fields to
determine if UDP was signaled). The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) was used to support a request
and reply service from the airborne segment to the WINCOMM ground server. (The GNI gateway
decoded the IP protocol fields to determine if TCP was signaled and sent appropriate signals to the RIU
protocol engine for further actions).
2.2 Test Series # 2 (March 7th – 10th, 2005)
This series of testing was conducted on March 7th – 10th, 2005. The objective of conducting this test effort
was to validate the effectiveness of using the VHF Digital Link (VDL) Mode 3 communications
technology as a digital data link to transmit air-to-ground weather information over Radio Frequency
(RF).
As with Test Series # 1, the WINCOMM Airborne Computer functioned as the Turbulence Test Message
(TTM) generator and as a data logger. The WINCOMM Ground Server functioned as the server portion
of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) client/server network. Testing
commenced in the laboratory in order to initially attenuate both systems and perform the required
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procedural tests. The VDL Mode 3 Ground System was configured in the 2 Voice and 2 Data (2V2D)
mode throughout the duration of testing. All tests were performed successfully.
Once all tests were performed the Rockwell Collins Avionics pallet and the WINCOMM Airborne Server
were moved to Building 70 at the WJHTC in preparation for RF testing. During testing on March 8th, the
VDL Mode 3 Ground System functioned as the link between the airborne segment and the WINCOMM
ground server. The GNI portion of the Ground System provided a gateway to the NASA Glenn Weather
Server.
An Internet Protocol (IP) gateway allowed for two data services including a broadcast service and a pointto-point request/reply link to the airborne segment. The IP protocol provided network connectivity
between the GRC Server, GNI and Airborne Segment. Once communications was initiated over RF, the
procedures previously conducted were duplicated using the RF link between the Air / Ground
Communication laboratory and Building 70. All testing over RF was successfully conducted, and Air /
Ground RF communication with WINCOMM weather products (as payloads) were successfully verified.
2.3 Test Series # 3 (April 11th – 13th, 2005)
The final series of testing was successfully conducted on April 11th -13th, 2005. The objective of this test
effort was to perform actual flight test trials using the NASA Glenn project lear jet flying over the
Atlantic City airspace, while communicating with the FAA ground system and NASA Glenn weather
server (both located at the FAA Technical Center).
There were two flights conducted daily for a period of three days, and all flight legs flown were
successful in transmitting and receiving weather information to and from the avionics suite on-board the
aircraft. All textual and graphical weather products were validated both at the NASA Glenn ground
server and at the Avionics display on-board the aircraft.
3.0 Air / Ground Communication Components
Ground Components
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NASA Glenn Ground Weather Server – This system provided the weather database source
and was physically connected to the FAA’s Ground Network Interface (GNI) via Ethernet
with TCP/IP as the communication protocol mechanism.
FAA GNI – Provided for the VDL Mode 3 data/voice subnetwork protocols as well as the
data broadcast service for transmitting the weather products to the aircraft avionics. The GNI
was physically connected to the NASA Glenn weather server over the Ethernet (based on
Interface Control Document (ICD) that the FAA produced for this effort)).
FAA Radio Interface Unit (RIU) – Provided for the radio controlling characteristics for both
transmitted and received data, the RIU communicates with the Transmitter and Receiver
ground radios via T1 lines, and at the same time, provides for the communication interface
with the GNI.
FAA Real Time Platform (RTP) – The RTP provided for the VDL Mode 3 data and voice
vocoder techniques for packetized data and voice segments.
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Multimode Digital Radios (MDRs) – Both transmitter and receiver ground radios provided
for the RF and modulation characteristics of the VDL Mode 3 subnetwork.
Aircraft Components
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Rockwell Collins VHF Data Radio (VDR) – This aircraft radio provided for the RF and
modulation characteristics on the aircraft side for RF communication with the ground MDRs.
Rockwell Collins Communication Management Unit (CMU) provided for the low-level
protocol communication characteristics for link establishment and data/voiced dissemination
with the ground RIU and GNI.
Rockwell Collins Multi Control Display Unit (MCDU) – Provided for the graphical and
textual display of the weather products, which were broadcasted from the ground system.
NASA Glenn Turbulence Generator – This tool provided turbulence data to be downlinked to
the ground NASA weather server, in which the server then broadcast that turbulence data (in
graphical form) to the aircraft for decomposition and display.
4.0 Summary
This summary represents a high level description of the testing efforts between the FAA, NASA Glenn
and Rockwell Collins in support of NASA’s WINCOMM program utilizing the VDL Mode 3 subnetwork
for proof of concept. Note that Attachments 2 through 7 contain textual and graphical products, which
were captured during all phases/series of testing. Also note that a final report will be jointly written by
the FAA and NASA Glenn and should be available for distribution in mid-June 2005.
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Attachment 1: Air / Ground Communication Components
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Attachment 2: Depiction Weather Product
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Attachment 3: NEXRAD Weather Product
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Attachment 4: Icing Weather Product
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Attachment 5: Winds Weather Product
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Attachment 6: METAR Weather Product
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Attachment 7: Turbulence