Virtual Centre

Call Updates

Jun 26, 2020 9:52:07 AM 

A total of 7 proposals were submitted in response to the Call for proposals H2020-SESAR-2020-2 (Wave 3).
The number of proposals for each topic is shown below:

SESAR-WAVE3-01-2020: 1

Jun 3, 2020 9:03:45 PM

Please note that the deadline for submission of proposals has been extended to 25 June 2020.

Mar 31, 2020 12:00:00 AM

The submission session is now available for: SESAR-WAVE3-01-2020(SESAR-RIA)

Virtual Centre

ID: SESAR-WAVE3-01-2020
Type of action: SESAR-RIA Research and Innovation action
Deadline Model : single-stage
Opening: 31 March 2020
Deadline: 16 June 2020 17:00:00 Brussels time

Horizon 2020

Call name: SESAR 2020 IR-VLD WAVE 3 |
Call ID: H2020-SESAR-2020-2

Specific Challenge:

In today’s situation Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) usually host a monolithic ATM system in each Air Traffic System Unit (ATSU) with very few information services and infrastructure elements being shared between the different centres. In the virtual centre approach, the controller working positions are decoupled and may even be geographically separated from the ATM information services that they consume, and these ATM information services may be shared between different ATSUs or even between ANSPs. The main benefits expected from the virtual centre approach are cost reduction and more flexibility to support load-balancing between the participating ATSUs, delegation of airspace or manage contingency situations. The development of technical services and common interfaces resulting from new technologies, working methods, and service oriented architectures (SOA) and procedures would also need to address human factors considerations.

Scope:The Virtual Centre concept consists of an innovative Virtual Centre architecture between a Virtual Centre ATSU and ATM Data Service Provider (ADSP), enabling that a volume of airspace can be controlled by one ATSU or another, e.g. depending on the availability of resources, or in order to provide service in the case of contingency. This topic addresses the automation and digitalisation concepts as referred to in the AAS as the ‘capacity-on-demand’ service. The topic covers:

ATFCM aspects of airspace delegation amongst ATSUs, making it possible for two neighbouring ATSUs (including ATSUs within the same ANSP) that can deliver service over the same volume of airspace to have a common cross-border rostering scheme. FMP support tools will consider the availability of ATCOs at any given time in both ATSUs when proposing a change of sectorization. This topic should also investigate the cross-border use of the Dynamic Airspace Configurations (DAC) concept. The objective is to make it possible to apply the DAC concept in a volume of airspace that is partly controlled by one ATSU and partly controlled by another ATSU, thereby increasing the number of potential configuration.
The topic shall also develop the required technical infrastructure to support the validation activities planned to be performed by Wave 2 solution PJ.10-W2-93 on the ATC aspects of airspace delegation amongst ATSUs and the validation activities required on the ATFCM aspects of airspace delegation amongst ATSUs.
Expected Impact:The solutions under the scope of this topic are expected to have a positive impact on the Network improving:

The Virtual Centre Concept helps dynamically adapting to changes in capacity e.g. in case of contingency in an ATSU;
Cost-efficiency thanks to the interoperability between system and the decoupling of the ATM data provision from the ATC service provision enabling data to be shared between different ATSUs.