NextGen Mobile Display Demonstration

By Jim Wu - AJW-9424/29/10

Why Mobilization?• Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) enables dissemination of weather

information widely and instantly to new classes of clients within and beyond the FAA

• NOAA has begun to provide weather alerts to the general public using modern dissemination mechanisms (i.e., tweets, blogs, mobile devices)

• Mobilization of ITWS weather information is technically feasible– ITWS service expansion mission brings terminal weather information to new

users in and around major metropolitan areas under OEP Terminal airspace – Mobilization enables the near term NextGen paradigm shift “dissemination”

by providing a new and popular mechanism for receiving alerts and context sensitive information

– Mobilization enables the mid-term NextGen paradigm shift “Translation” of Weather into Weather Constraints leading to benefits for Decision Support Tool (DST) developers who now have a new tool for demonstrations

• ITWS functions may be subsumed by NextGen Weather Processor (NWP)

Service Gap• There are more than 10,000 airports in the US, yet less than

150 Air Traffic Control Towers have direct access to ITWS Situation Displays– ITWS primarily serves large volume Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs),

most TRACONs and ARTCCS, and the ATCSCC.– ITWS also serves airline dispatchers at seven major air carriers via

Internet– ITWS is unavailable in-flight– ITWS helps bring common situational awareness among NAS

operators, controllers and airlines enabling efficient timing of operational changes when first constrained / unconstrained by weather

– Some OEP Secondary / Reliever Airports (SRA) now tie-in to their OEP Primary Hub via ITWS expansion

• PROBLEM – Many potential users within ITWS covered terminal airspace remain in the dark– Lack of measurable operational benefits that outweigh the cost of

expensive desktop or flight-deck situation displays, dedicated high bandwidth telecommunications and lifecycle organic maintenance

Mobile Solution• POTENTIAL SOLUTION - Handheld devices which:

– Are very inexpensive compared to Situation Displays (< 1/10 the cost)– Operate instantaneously at the surface “and aloft” throughout all the

terminal airspace covered by ITWS sensors– Eliminate expensive point-to-point telecommunications– Enjoy commercial development, maintenance and wide availability– Leverage immense non-recurring design cost for human-machine

interoperability and understanding• There are 45 millions smart phone users in the USA.• Potential benefits from SOA dissemination of ITWS products may be realized

by Pilots (pre-flight and in-flight), Flight Planners, Service Stations, Airports including Commercial small hubs, Air Cargo, GA, military, small ATCTs and non-towered fields (Federal, commercial and private) in the vicinity of major metropolitan areas

• All may gain access to the “best available” terminal weather of ANSP quality becoming welcomed to common situational awareness between FAA controllers and now able to anticipate the timing of operational change due to weather constraints

• New services promote the President’s Management Agenda concerning e-Government, and e-Commerce.

Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS) – Mobile Edition (ME)

• ITWS-ME is a client/server based software package that will run on any Smartphone device.

• Smartphones that will run ITWS-ME include Blackberry, iPhone, gPhone, and more.

• The ITWS Weather Team is working to develop wireless software that will provide current & forecast ITWS and CIWS (Corridor Integrated Weather System) weather products– Data formats will be those used by wireless devices. – ITWS and CIWS weather information will be available to users with a

Smartphone or similar device. • To fully realize the NextGen “Dissemination” paradigm shift in

accord with “To-Be” Service Views the ITWS Weather Team envisions all NextGen weather products ought to be available wirelessly and universally to users of mobile devices in the near future.

ITWS-ME Demo System Architecture

Weather data flow under the ITWS-ME version 1.0 demo - Read-only weather data goes from the ITWS PG SWIM server at Volpe FAA PC in admin network via VPN located in DC Smartphone web service server Iphone or Blackberry or Gphone.

Apple Iphone (AT&T GSM)

ITWS PG Server SWIM server (Located in VOLPE)

FAA PC (Admin Network)

Smart Phone Web Service Server

Running:Blackberry ApplicationSQL Server

Blackberry Server

Lotus Notes Server

AES 256 Encrypted

AES 256 Encrypted

FAA-Owned Blackberry with:• Email• GPS Function

Security Features:

• FAA-owned and configured Blackberry

• AES-256 Encryption

• ITWS Application Certification - Only allows users with the proper certificate to access the Application

• One-time Passwords emailed to users

• GPS Function can be used to logically block/allow access based on physical location of the device

ITWS-ME for Blackberry Access - Security

Screenshots for ITWS-ME v1.0

IPhone Icon IPhone ITWS Main IPhone ITWS Detail

ITWS-ME Future Development Goals

• ITWS-ME will integrate FAA weather information with Global Positioning System on a 2D global map with live compass heading to dynamically relate user position with weather.

• ITWS-ME will generate notifications and alerts via graphics and synthesized voice.

• ITWS-ME will use bandwidth sharing technology to save cost• ITWS-ME is compatible with new mobile applications giving

limitless possibilities to DST developers

Apple iPhone

RIM Blackberry

GoogleNexus One

Mobile Data Provider saves FTI cost

Questions & Some Other Screen Shots