NAV CANADA Relies on Azure to Help Keep an Eye on Every Flight
NAV CANADA’s entrepreneurial culture has fostered development of new technologies that have shaped
global aviation. Relying on Microsoft Azure to help deliver the Internet of Things for airlines promises to
vault the industry ahead again with greater safety, security and efficiency solutions for airlines and
consumers.
A Boeing 747 thunders down the runway at Toronto International Airport. As it rises into the sky, air
traffic controllers watch the familiar blip on their radar screen. The 800 thousand pound jumbo jet will
now follow its charted path, passing through a series of FIR (flight information region) territories, staying
in contact with a series of air traffic controllers as it flies toward its final destination. To keep tabs on the
skies, these aerial highways are tightly managed. Each pilot operates in a navigational “bubble”, an
optimized route surrounded by a wide safety net. For much of the flight over domestic airspace, the
flight’s progress is monitored using radar, until the plane exits beyond the reach of ground based
surveillance equipment as it transits the ocean towards Europe.
Keeping an Eye in the Sky
Sadly, it was the loss of Malaysia flight MH370 that
thrust this gap in surveillance into the spotlight. As
social media and news agencies covered the story,
the world was asking the same question; in this day
of satellite, cellular communications, and GPS, how
is it possible to lose an airplane? The answer lies in
“The existing gaps in surveillance, particularly in cases of
lost aircraft, became abundantly clear this past year. The
tragic disappearance of flight MH370 prompted a
worldwide urgency to look for solutions.” John Crichton,
President and CEO of NAV CANADA
the fact that air traffic control surveillance is ground based and therefore its reach is limited beyond our
shores and in difficult to reach remote areas of the planet. With over seventy percent of our planet
covered by water or remote mountainous or desert regions, global surveillance of aircraft has been an
impossible task. Until now.
Two Billion Dollars Invested
NAV CANADA is Canada’s civil air navigation services provider (ANSP). As the only fully private ANSP in
the world, NAV CANADA is proud of their entrepreneurial culture. It is a mind-set that has fostered
development of new technologies to help deliver better services spanning air traffic control, flight
information, weather briefings, aeronautical information services, airport advisory services and
electronic navigation aids. Over the years, NAV CANADA has invested more than $2 billion dollars in
research and technology to make our skies smarter, safer and more efficient. This includes deployment
of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system, a highly accurate tracking system
that serves as the next generation of radar, but one that still relies on a series of ground based stations
with a limit on how much airspace these sensors can track.
ADS-B Goes into Orbit
For NAV CANADA CEO John Crichton, finding a way to extend the capabilities of ADS-B to cover the
globe was a challenge he was keen to solve. It would mean searching out alternatives to terrestrial
based solutions by turning to the very skies themselves. Moving ADS-B to the sky and using a satellite
constellation in low-earth orbit as host for ADS-B transponders was the answer. But satellite
installations would be risky and highly expensive. As a global problem facing every airline and country in
the world, John believed that forming a consortium of specialized partners and investors was the right
way to go.
A Satellite Refresh and the Internet of Things
The consortium included Iridium Communications Inc., a satellite communications leader that was
planning a full generational refresh of its existing constellation of more than seventy low earth orbiting
satellites beginning in 2015 and spanning through to 2017. This resulted in the formation of a new joint
venture called Aireon.
Aireon is committed to installing ADS-B sensor payloads on each of those satellites and offering both
paid (business efficiency) and free (emergency) surveillance services to ensure that the actual location of
every plane can be monitored in real time, no matter where it is flying in the world.
With ADS-B now broadly deployed in many countries around the globe and commercial aircraft now
being built or retrofitted with ADS-B avionics, the Aireon vision is becoming a reality. Commercial
aircraft using ADS-B will be sending a constant stream of rich data while in flight through the Iridium
constellation down through a receiving ground station and routed to Aireon customers who will
integrate the signal within their air traffic control systems.
These ADS-B flight “messages” will flow through highly secure private connections to all Aireon
customers globally and do so at rate and precision that is far greater than with traditional radar
technologies.
Extending the Internet of Things (IoT) to track planes is opening the door to massive opportunity for
aviation companies.
Microsoft Azure Delivers a Scalable Sandbox for Innovation
As a pre-revenue company, most of Aireon’s investment capital needed to be directed towards the
development of satellite based ADS-B. Therefore when it came to enabling business systems and
analytics, Aireon turned to Microsoft and Microsoft Azure.
“The challenge for Aireon was to enable critical business operations having very unique requirements
that cannot be economically provided with traditional IT approaches. For example, Aireon’s Billing
System essentially must take aircraft surveillance information and process that into an invoice” said
Claudio Silvestri, Vice-President and Chief Information Officer at NAV CANADA.
“With limited working capital and the need for such unique systems, global customers needing access to
flight information and having high system performance and availability expectations, Microsoft Azure
proved to be the answer.”
Silvestri added “As the requirements became clearer, we quickly realized we would require a lot of
computing power and highly scalable storage. Microsoft Azure offered us a scalable environment with
affordable compute on demand. We were able to build out robust Proofs of Concepts (POCs) with the
most current technology and tools. Without Microsoft Azure, our R&D efforts would have extended well
beyond our budget and schedule.
Streamlining Our Airways
Efficiency is another benefit of the Aireon solution. Because of the level of detail on aircraft positions
that Aireon will deliver, new separation standards for the industry can be introduced. Claudio further
explained, “Due to the limitations of providing air traffic control in areas without radar, we traditionally
have had to separate aircraft on the same track by 10 minutes or 80 nautical miles and 60 nautical miles
laterally, or one degree of latitude. This limits the number of planes that can fly along a specific corridor
during the course of a day. Now we will be able to reduce the separation standards dramatically –
potentially moving from 80 nautical miles of separation to 15 nautical miles – and because the routes
can be more precise, we can take better advantage of the prevailing winds, reducing fuel costs for
Aireon customers. We estimate fuel cost savings for airlines alone have the potential to be in the tens
of millions of dollars annually.”
What Does this Mean for the Internet of Things?
Once the initial constellation of satellites is launched, Aireon will start looking at new ways to manage
and commercialize their data, “ There will be so many new possibilities as a result of this new set of rich
and highly accurate global flight data. These will benefit the flying public, the aviation industry itself as
well as other related travel services. Further, with dramatic improvements in route optimization
reducing fuel consumption, we will see a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that will
have a positive impact on the global environment” said Vincent Capezzuto, Chief Technology Officer at
Aireon.
It also means that all flights can now be fully tracked all the time over 100% of the earth’s surface. So in
the event of an airline emergency, Aireon will know with pinpoint precision where rescue crews need to
go. While no one wants to imagine this scenario, for all those impacted – from families to first
responders – the peace-of-mind is priceless.
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