Those of our readers who have looked at the various postings on System Wide Information Management (SWIM) will be familiar with the abbreviation PENS which stands for “Pan European Network Service”. PENS will allow air navigation service providers from 38 countries to exchange operational data communications across a common network for the first time.
Following an intensive competitive tendering exercise, SITA was selected as the provider of this managed IP based regional communications backbone service.
PENS will enable the 38 ANSPs of the EUROCONTROL Member States to exchange operational ATC data communications in a seamless and integrated manner; it will provide an alternative to the ad-hoc bi-lateral communications that are largely in place today between the ANSPs, resulting in improved service levels and reduced overall costs.
It will serve both today’s needs for inter-ANSP information exchange and those envisioned by SESAR – the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management (ATM) Research Programme – under it’s System Wide Information Management initiative thus laying a key foundation for the Single European Sky with its goals of increasing capacity, improving safety, reducing aviation’s environmental impact and cutting ATM costs by 50%.
PENS will additionally replace the individual IP network services that have been delivering services to EUROCONTROL’s Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU)
and European Aeronautical Information Service Database (EAD) centralized applications thus delivering further economies of scale given the number of common points where both CFMU and EAD services are delivered.
Although EUROCONTROL’s communiqué mentions only inter-ANSP communications, it is important to remember that the SWIM concept by definition embraces all ATM partners, including airports and airspace users also. It is therefore essential that PENS not be limited to improving ANSP communications only. At least not if it wants to lay claim, as it obviously does, to being an element of System Wide Information Management.
In 2008 it was confirmed at a SWIM briefing meeting held at EUROCONTROL, that although initially PENS was envisaged as being open to ANSPs and EUROCONTROL and for ground/ground communications only, it was soon realized that for maximum benefit, the proposed network service should be available also for other partners (airspace users, airports, etc.) should they wish to join. The technical and institutional arrangements for this were in the process of being agreed. Hopefully this vital aspect is not being forgotten… Obviously, PENS must be open also to seamless interconnection with other networks used by ATM partners not interested in joining PENS itself.
With this “minor” addition, we join those who congratulate SITA and EUROCONTROL on this important SWIM step towards the future.