The need and capability of a Surveillance Data Distribution System

The emergence of next generation technologies in Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the requirement to interface to existing sensor systems dictates the need for a Surveillance Data Distribution System (SDDS). What is a Surveillance Data Distribution System and what added capabilities does the platform offer? The distribution of surveillance data has its own unique requirements unlike the transport of generic data. An SDDS is a surveillance aware layer that sits on top of normal data transport network or cloud. Just as Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) has its own unique transport requirements to insure adequate efficacy, so does the transfer and distribution of surveillance data used for ATC and automation systems. Surveillance data is considered mission critical data essential for the tracking and operation of ATC systems. It has strict real-time requirements with regard to accuracy and latency, and must be highly available (redundant). It also must be capable of delivering the surveillance data to a variety of diverse users over a wide geographic area. In today´s world, surveillance data is multicast over IP to a multitude of users ranging from the United States Air Force, Customs, Secret Service, and the Department of Homeland Security. Although the latency of the data is well within the 700 ms requirement of most ATC systems, anomalies such as duplicate messages create network bottlenecks and data loss due to lack of dynamic filtering to overcome bandwidth limitations. Additionally, the lack of surveillance data service monitoring limits visibility into the network to monitor and mediate that data usage. The capabilities of a Surveillance Data Distribution network address the following challenges: (1) Distribute data from multiple diverse sources (sensors) to multiple sinks (users). (2) Provide for dynamic and static load balancing to accommodate different bandwidth connections. (3) Provide services to validate, filter, and convert the data. (4) Provide a monitoring and control- system that understands surveillance data, maintains technical performance metrics and provides alerts to quickly notify administrators when a problem occurs. These network enhancements increase data throughput and improve surveillance services while providing the bridge and foundation for future service-oriented architecture (SOA) initiatives.