Traditional system supervision is not adequate to meet the constantly increasing complexity of integrated surveillance processing chains. Contents-based supervision of surveillance data streams forms the basis of a new quality management.

The considerable increase in computing power has brought multi-radar data processing to new levels of performance, combining for example classic filter algorithms with more complex probabilistic models. Furthermore, new sensor types, data links and networking technology have been added to the surveillance chain. This has led to a significantly increased level of SDPS complexity.

Providing as precise an air situation depiction as possible is nowadays only one of the demands of an SDPS. Current requirements include safety net functions, such as Short Term Conflict Alert (STCA) and Minimum Safe Altitude Warning (MSAW), Weather Data Analysis and Safety Monitoring Facilities (SMF), but also traffic coordination functions, channelled through the SDPS.

To achieve this comprehensive functionality, equipment rooms of computers handling a multitude of various data streams have been installed at many ATC centres and airports. Fed over Communication Front End Systems (CFEPs) data is collected on a central backbone LAN connected to all ATC servers (SDPS, STCA, MSAW, FDPS, etc.). At the same time, generated results are made available in a client-server relationship to the hosts of the end-user applications.

System supervision is today seen as a prerequisite to be able to master complex environments as the ones described above. Typically system supervision on centre level is supported by COTS management suites such as HP OpenView for control and monitoring of a considerable number of data processing elements from a 7x24h technical watch.

However, system supervision cannot and must not be limited to monitoring the system condition, only. Content-based inspections of surveillance data streams represent today more of the ATM-specific challenge. Content-based supervision of SDPSs must include the monitoring of the quality of the surveillance data at its various processing stages and deliver well founded quality indicators for each of the processing steps. Means to isolate faults and to identify deficiencies are essential to aid the technical staff to retain a continued high level of service integrity.

Rather than “simple” fail/no-fail supervision information about the hosts of surveillance data processing, qualitative supervision of the surveillance data streams themselves becomes more and more important. Aside from false system parameters that may affect data processing, degradation of input data may otherwise occur at any time, leading to a creeping, barely noticeable quality reduction of the generated air situation information.

Taking into account the increased complexity of SDPS systems, and following the shift of focus in surveillance supervision, a catalogue of common requirements for Surveillance Supervision Applications were identified, and consolidated with experience from a number of European Air Traffic Service Organisations (ATSOs).

As a non-functional essential requirement of surveillance supervision systems, safety requires that surveillance processing is not influenced by the supervision itself. On the other hand, surveillance supervision should support all levels of technical analysis: from high level eyeball assessment of visually presented data down to the lowest levels of communication protocols including bit analysis of the exchanged data.

Performed at all stages of the data processing technical supervision should consequently cover the entire surveillance path. This starts with the raw input data and follows the data streams step by step to the information provided to the end users. This must also include auxiliary information from flight plan processing systems (FDPS) and safety net functions.

Independently developed and validated, a surveillance supervision system becomes a very powerful tool for an ATSO. This already applies for the integration phase and becomes more and more valuable in the course of the operational use of an SDPS. The supervision system will support day-to-day investigations including trouble shooting and can as well be applied for system (re-)validation after minor and major changes of the infrastructure or the environment.

Identifying the needs of ATSOs and addressing the above requirements COMSOFT has introduced the Radar Monitoring Display (RMD) product family as a new type of surveillance supervision application, with the capability to process and depict all kinds of surveillance data as well as related information in native form and in real time.

As a basic function, RMD accepts both raw sensor and processed data and depicts them graphically in form of a constantly updated air situation picture, as well as in textual or tabular form. Its multi-channel-capability supports direct visual comparison of input data and data processing output, vitally important to be able to correlate unexpected output to specific conditions in the input data.

Comparing it with radar data displays used in the operational environment, RMD depicts significantly more data and processed information, such as, for example, quality figures of tracks or internal track stati. This data, typically not relevant for the controller, aids in the evaluation of information by automatic data processing and provides additional useful information about the quality of the input data. Moreover, RMD can collect and process statistical information derivable from this input. Particularly in combination with trackers like the EUROCONTROL ARTAS system, RMD fully exploits this type of output to provide the user with a comprehensive volume of information.

For operational use, RMD can be equipped with additional software agents which continuously monitor the quality of data and immediately signal detected problems to the user. Data logs are created with the collected data and preserved for a later analysis. The agents compare the observed data with a set of quality parameters and indicate the violation of given surveillance performance standards. In the most basic form, these performance values are derived from statistical results obtained from sensors and data processing systems. But they may also include accuracy and reliability information of the target information. In case information is missing or is not provided, RMD may be equipped with enhanced agents that independently determine the necessary quality figures.

RMD comprises depiction functions common for workstations in the operational environment, such as dynamic off-centering, seamless zooming and support of vector maps. In addition, RMD provides a number of useful interactive depiction functions specific to technical supervision. For example, the user can choose a given target that will control the presented centre of the display. This is very useful in particular in close-zoom situations, as otherwise the display area would constantly have to be adjusted.

In general, the level and volume of information that is displayed, such as placeable labels in the geographical air situation display, can be flexibly configured with RMD. Labels have the advantage that they stick to and move with the tracked flight and update in case new information is available. The RMD also supports labels for progressive positioning messages, enabling the presentation of, for example, flying altitude in a geographic course as an alternative to a tabular presentation. Three dimensional presentation of data is supported, as well. Aside from the dynamic depiction of a course, the two and three dimensional plotting function provides a strong method to document selected air situations.

Selected flight tracks and their corresponding information can be visually enhanced by adding colours and symbols. Tabular presentations of data are available. Among the functions especially appreciated is the ability to replay recorded situations anytime requiring no or minimal set-up time. This has proven to be very practical during fault finding or viewing of problematic situations which need immediate response, such as for Search and Rescue applications. In connection with large scale recording systems, like the RRR (Radar Recording and Replay System), the RMD is also utilized for the operational evaluation of air situations.

RRR supports the transparent time-stamped recording and replay of all kinds of digital data. Used in conjunction with RMD it can provide the input data for any type of evaluations. RRR supports all presently customary synchronous, asynchronous and LAN interfaces and supports a wide variety of data protocols. Present-day storage technology used for recording supports both simultaneous recording and simultaneous replay of a multitude of data channels. The extent of memory capacity determines the memory depth for data available online. Typically, online storage depths range from 30 days to 12 months.

With its RMD product family, COMSOFT provides powerful and efficient systems especially developed and dedicated for the supervision of SDPS environments. They provide valuable functions enabling operational supervision at any time. Through integrated automatic agents even creeping degradation of the data quality can be detected. The independence from the actual SDPS guarantees that errors are clearly identified and validation activities, in particular in the context of changes in system architecture or infrastructure, are backed by reliable qualitative and quantitative data.