ACP-WGW04/IP-03
International Civil Aviation Organization
09/14/11
INFORMATION PAPER
AERONAUTICAL COMMUNICATIONS PANEL (ACP)
FOURTH MEETING OF THE WORKING GROUP OF THE WHOLE
Montreal, Canada 14 – 16 September 2011
Agenda Item 4: Future Evolution of Ground-Ground Message Systems, Including SWIM
Air Traffic Service Message handling System (AMHS) Implementation
Status Between FAA and Other ICAO Regions
(Presented by Hoang Tran)
SUMMARY
This paper convey the status of AMHS implementation in Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) and its adjacent ICAO regions.
ACTION
The meeting is invited to note the implementation status and take advantage of
the network for other applications.
1.
INTRODUCTION
1.1
The FAA has implemented the AMHS since 2005 with Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) that
was based on ICAO Doc. 9705 Edition developed by Aeronautical Telecommunication Panel that was
merged to Aeronautical Communication panel. The AMHS has been upgraded to comply with ICAO
Doc. 9880 and ICAO Doc. 9705 Edition 3 developed by ACP WG I.
1.2
The FAA has since implemented AMHS with United Kingdom and in the process to cutover
AMHS service with Fiji in October 2011.The research program on Aeronautical MIMO system started in
April 2008, and will be completed in March 2011.
1.3
The figure 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 show the AMHS network in Asia/Pacific, European, North
American/Caribbean, and South American regions in association with FAA.
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Figure1. Asia/Pacific Regional AMHS Backbone
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Figure 2 Asia/Pacific Regional AMHS Network
AMHS connections:
i.
Australia-Fiji
ii.
Hong Kong, China-Macao, China
iii.
India-Singapore
iv.
Japan-USA
v.
Fiji-USA (October 2011)
Note: All States using AFTN terminal has option to maintain their AFTN terminal or replace with
Personal Computer (PC) based AMHS User Agent that can support higher speed based on internet
protocol.
Figure 3 European/North Atlantic Regional CIDIN/AMHS network
AMHS Connections:
i.
Germany-Spain
ii.
United Kingdom-USA
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Note: Per AFSG report, twelve States in the region are in the testing phase
Figure 4 North American and Caribbean Regional AFTN
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Figure 5 South American regional AFTN/AMHS Network
AMHS Connections:
i.
Argentina-Paraguay(Operational testing)
ii.
Columbia-Peru
iii.
Guyana-Suriname
Note: Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay are in the final phase for operational testing
2.
DISCUSSION
2.1.
The transition from Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network (AFTN) is proceeding very
slow due to telecommunication infrastructure constraint between States and not strictly adhered to AFTN
specification as specified in ICAO document as well as keeping up to date of ICAO Facility Identification.
2.2.
Most of the transition issues are related to operational procedure. The AFTN operational
procedure is based on operators to scan and modify the message using bilateral agreement between
adjacent centers while AMHS is operated automatically and will reject all messages that are not complied
with ANNEX X and unknown addresses.
2.3.
Many of the automation application is still using character based International Alphabet Number
5 (IA-5) a modified subset of American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) interface that
can only be supported by AFTN and AFTN/AMHS Gateway. This continues to AMHS implementation.
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However, the AMHS would allow automation application to bypass IA-5/ASCII interface without the
need to build a gateway.
2.4.
The AMHS network can be used to support ground-ground network for LINK 2000+/Datacom
through either IP SNDCF or TCP/IP.
2.5.
It is highly recommended that the separation of operation and network between ground-ground
and air-ground for LINK2000+/Datacom. This will allows States an independent capability to monitor
and measure the performance of vendor provided air-ground service.
2.6.
The AFTN can be modified to support Internet Protocol (IP) network but additional coordination
and modification are required to support tracking and distribution. This will be a time consuming process
and additional cost to States.
3.
ACTION BY THE MEETING
3.1
The ACP WGW is invited to note the information and consider the AMHS network to support
other services.
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