Although the concept of Performance Based Navigation (PBN) is generally known, when it comes to filling in the details, there is a lot of uncertainty, misunderstandings and even diverging views on what exactly should we understand under PBN. Big organizations like ICAO and EUROCONTROL are doing their best to clarify things but clearly, more is needed.
The idea of organizing a workshop on the grassroots level to discuss PBN and shape common understanding of the issues first came up in 2008 when a number of industry experts discussed how their partners could be helped in getting a better grasp on PBN and its implementation. The idea was to bring together air navigation service providers, airlines, international organizations, research institutions and manufacturers for a focused but easygoing discussion of this complicated subject. 2008 was a bad year for any undertaking requiring traveling and it was only this week that the workshop finally took place in Budapest, Hungary.
HungaroControl, the Hungarian air navigation service provider had kindly offered to host the workshop and we were able to enjoy their excellent facilities on 17 an 18 November. The number of participants (30) was a good compromise between the range of partners represented and overall size for a workshop-type meeting.
The agenda was structured to ensure a logical progression through the most important aspects of PBN.
After a short presentation setting the scene, ICAO introduced the PBN concept and their strategy to implement it. This was followed by two presentations from the airspace users (IATA and EBAA) describing their expectations and the issues they saw.
The next block of presentations by ERA, Quo Vadis (Airbus) and Honeywell provided information on the technologies available to support PBN. It was highlighted that ERA Corporation, specialists in multilateration based surveillance, were invited in recognition that PBN, although in its name apparently tied to navigation only, was in fact much more than just navigation. The detailed information on Honeywell’s GNSS landing system and the RNP capabilities offered by Quo Vadis (an Airbus subsidiary) were very well received by the participants.
We soon discovered that not only PBN had its issues with new terms and expressions… The presentations trying to clarify those issues themselves used further buzzwords, not all of which were easy to understand for everyone. Net-centricity or business trajectory may be the bread and butter for those very near to the core of system developments, but for many others, they are more buzz than words. It was agreed to slot in a new presentation on the morning of Day 2 dedicated to explaining the agreed meaning of the most widely used “buzzwords”.
The timing of the workshop was lucky in that the EUROCONTROL facility in Budapest had just completed a real-time simulation on the use of RNP and so the workshop participants could have a first hand report from the simulation and its preliminary results. Based on what we heard, RNP is as promising as we all thought it would be.
Next the workshop turned its attention to the APAC presentation and in it the relationship between PBN and the Single European Sky regulations. How do these things fit? Does SES take PBN into account? Lots of questions and some open issues that need more study.
Zebrafish International showed its web based business case development tool. This flexible and fully shareable solution to generating cost-benefit analyses is perfectly adaptable to a PBN environment and hence will probably play a big role in PBN related decision making.
Mindful of the need to continue with discussing PBN related subjects, the workshop unanimously supported a proposal to establish an expert group to be called the PING (PBN Interest Group) that would be the forum for PBN implementation related news and discussions. The PING is envisaged to work as a specialist focus group that would support and advise also other activities, like for instance the implementation of FABs (Functional Airspace Bocks). The usefulness of a grassroots group like the PING was amply demonstrated in the context of air/ground digital link where the LIT (Link Integration Team) had been instrumental in moving things forward.
On concluding the workshop, all participants agreed that this was a very useful initiative and they were looking forward to exchanging views, solutions and other PBN related information in the context of the PING.