Good news at long last
Not so long ago, I was asked to make a presentation about System Wide Information Management (SWIM) to the participants of a project we are involved in. While most of the audience noted what I said and asked a few relevant questions, there was also a small minority who expressed the opinion that SWIM as I described it will never happen. This reminded me of arguments I have had years earlier with someone who went so far as even wanting to banish the name “SWIM” for reasons I could never really understand (you can read more about how this name was born here).
It also struck me as strange that if you ask the average person involved in or near SESAR about what is going on in the project in the context of information management generally and SWIM in particular, you are likely to get a list of work packages and companies involved in working on them but little else.
I at Roger-Wilco have written a lot about SWIM but most of the time I was trying to describe the why with an indication of possible “how” options but that was also not the information we crave so much: what is going on with SWIM?
Into this void came finally information from recently published papers (e.g. from the Stakeholder Consultation Group SCG) that describes not only the why and how of SESAR but also the status as it is now with important details about the work that is ongoing.
Having been involved with SWIM right from the day it was born (hell I can claim part of the fatherhood for this baby), I am now especially pleased to see that the terminology being used to describe the SWIM concept and its practicalities is exactly as we have always intended it to be. This is important because over the years there were several attempts to water down the concept, to change its focus or main principles and there was a very real danger that it would end up like so many good initiatives before it, dead before it had a chance to prove itself. But apparently this danger is now past and those involved in the work to-day are developing SWIM along the correct lines.
I will not bore you with a repeated description of what SWIM is. You can read more about that here. Instead, I will focus on the ongoing activities and their significance.
As you will see, there is plenty to talk about.
Clarifying the information management principles
One of the perennial discussion items concerned the relationship of information management (IM) and SWIM. Many thought that IM was the aim and there was no need for SWIM as such. Now finally it is being made clear that there are certain principles established under the banner of information management and when SWIM is built, it will put into place its elements based on those principles. This is a very clear and unambiguous clarification and hopefully it will eliminate forever the circular discussions on this subject.
But how were the IM principles defined and what are they?
Building on the best practices from different ATM data communities such as AIM, meteo, flight (object), etcetera, the aim of Information Management is to provide information users with the right information at the right time and at the right place, enabled through the concept of net centric ATM operations. This is enabled through effective information filtering including the use of time based and location based information selection. With the wealth of information expected to be available and used within the ATM system, it is essential that such information is decomposed into its individual parts before being made available / distributed, selected, tailored and assembled to meet the precise needs of information users.
In a service oriented approach, data provision and its underlying data models and the usage of data are decoupled, in order to avoid over-reliance by the end-user applications on the data models.
As a consequence, information provision is separated from information use:
• with the intent to establish information services which can be used and re-used in various user contexts
• with the intent to enable enhanced system flexibility and the promotion of innovation and of customized services
•through the development and use of appropriate standards relating to data modeling and data exchange.
The separation between data provision and data usage, combined with the unlocking of the data by the application of the key generic characteristics allows interoperable information sharing. This in turn facilitates innovation by industry based on “one logic – many / new solutions”.
Building SWIM
Until now, it was usually at this point that SWIM related descriptions started to become a bit vague… Even my own texts were, by necessity, a bit too light in this respect since we never had the opportunity to transform the concept into concrete building blocks. However, that is exactly what the SESAR community is doing now and it is one of the most important, tangible proofs of SWIM progress. More is provided by the concrete projects already up and running but more about that later.
So, based on the information management principles, the following SWIM elements are being put in place.
• ATM Information Reference Model – AIRM – which provides an implementation neutral definition of all ATM information, through harmonized conceptual and logical data models. It contains well-known elements such as Aerodrome, ATS Route, Airspace, Flight procedure as well as a common definition of fundamental modeling concepts such as time and geometry. Furthermore it will contain the definitions of the information which will be required to perform the Information Management Functions described below. As part of the SESAR work program, the first version of the AIRM (the “Initial Load”) was delivered to the SESAR JU this summer. It is based on existing data models such as AIXM, WXXM and Flight Object work and industry standards such GML and the ISO19100 series. Further incremental deliveries of the AIRM are planned every six months.
• Information Management Functions, such as user identity management, discoverability of resources, security aspects such as authentication, encryption and authorization, notification services, registration needs to be defined to support information sharing. This information is frequently referred to as Metadata. These activities are already common practice in many organizations but need cross-organization federation to enable a seamless SWIM.
• Information Service Reference Model – ISRM – which provides the logical breakdown of required information services and their behavioral patterns. Working towards service implementation specifications, it will include the details of services’ payload, pattern of exchange, quality of service (QoS), and binding to the system-of-system data exchange infrastructure, also known as the SWIM infrastructure. Building on existing implementations such as the CFMU B2B Services the ISRM will provide the landscape of the ATM Information Services. A first version is scheduled to be delivered to the SESAR JU for March 2011 with subsequent updates every six months.
• SWIM Governance – The advent of SWIM affects almost all the roles and their interactions within the ATM system. In addition, the management of information requires that policies related to the access and uses of information are developed. Rules, roles and responsibilities needs to be defined, per stakeholder, taking into account the functional criticality of the information they handle. The roles to be played by the military organizations and their systems have to be fully addressed. Data ownership, data provision and data usage rules will need to redefined and possibly harmonized. Issues such as liabilities, charging and copyright principles will need to be proactively managed. In all circumstances, there is an increasing need for the definition and application of Service Level Agreements (SLA) between the different parties. Existing implementations such as EAD and the CFMU NOP Portal and regulations such as ADQ are providing a sound basis for the further development of SWIM Governance.
• SWIM Infrastructure is the interoperable technical infrastructure (Ground/Ground and Air/Ground) over which the data gets distributed. Its implementation may, depending on the specific needs, differ from one stakeholder to another, both in terms of scope and way of implementation. It will offer SWIM technical services (generic or domain-specific) based as much as possible on mainstream IT technologies. It will be mostly based on COTS products and services, but it is possible that in some specific cases specific software may need to be developed. Typically PENS and the Internet will provide the underlying basic Ground/Ground connectivity.
• SWIM Profiles are being defined to map the SWIM requirements and the potential set of supporting technologies and services options. SWIM Profiles are a means for the Stakeholder to make the final decision when integrating SWIM in their operational applications according to their specific SWIM usage, SWIM requirements (performance, security, reliability…) and constraints (technical, financial and transition from existing applications).
All of these elements are important but SWIM governance is perhaps the most fundamental. For a long time, descriptions of SWIM plans and intentions tended to focus on the technical aspects and the user applications while conveniently ignoring the fact that the new information management environment made possible by SWIM will require institutional changes and new governance if it is to become reality and its benefits available to all. With SWIM governance now figuring prominently in the elements to be put in place, the chances of success have just increased considerably.
One of the biggest challenges for SWIM will be a harmonized deployment, building from and/or on top of the current (and legacy) environment. Hereby due attention must be given to the appropriate regulation and standardization approach. The starting point will be current EU regulations (such as INSPIRE & ADQ), the many relevant ICAO Annexes & Guidance material, standards from Eurocae/RTCA (e.g. WG44, 59, 69, …) which all need to be gradually updated for the emerging SWIM requirements. Further non-aviation industrial standardization activities (e.g. Open Geospatial Consortium – OGC) will need to be followed, integrated and where required their development influenced for aviation specific requirements. Therefore SWIM is expected to be an important driver of new & updated standards. In that context global interoperability is a key success factor for SWIM.
SWIM progress in terms of projects
In order to be able to put things into their proper context, we need to cast a quick look at the SESAR work program. SESAR is now in the so called development phase that lasts from 2008 to 2016 and it has three threads as follows:
• Operational activities are addressed under WPs 4, 5, 6 and 7
• System development activities are addressed under WPs 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15
• Information Management and SWIM is addressed under WPs 8 and 14
• “Transverse activities”, such as validation infrastructure, development of safety, security,
environment and human performance cases, ATM Master Plan maintenance, Target concept and architecture maintenance, are dealt with additional WPs (i.e. B, C, 3, 16)
From the SWIM perspective, it is Work Package 8 (Information Management), Work Package 13 (Network Information Management), Work Package 14 (SWIM Technical Infrastructure) and Work Package 9 (Aircraft Systems) are relevant. Of no practical consequence but still it is worthwhile to note that the term “SWIM” appears only in the name of WP 14 when in fact all of these WPs are dealing with different aspects of SWIM. Historians many years hence writing the saga of SESAR will no doubt note that as a fading echo of the expert battles during the SESAR definition phase where the tug of war between “information management” and “SWIM” was still very much reality. Fortunately, the content of the work was not affected by those battles around the name.
Anything missing?
In the various discussions about SWIM, the nature and delivery of the benefits has often been questioned. As you may remember, the lack of proper management of the sea of information available (but often poorly accessible) in the ATM system has been quoted as one of the most important shortcomings as far back as the ATM2000+ Strategy. It was for this reason that SWIM was defined and its urgent implementation proposed and agreed many years ago. However, one should not forget that improving the availability and accessibility of information (which SWIM will do) is not a silver bullet on its own.
The benefits and real improvements will come from the improved and novel end-user applications that will be enabled by SWIM.
WP 14.2.9 does talk about a SWIM Platform and a demonstrator but we all know what that means. Something that will show that SWIM works… but we know that SWIM on its own is just an information broker with very limited intelligence.
WP 14.4 SWIM Exploitation comes nearest to actually talk about end-user applications but in the end it fails to utter the magic words.
I think it is absolutely essential that SESAR does lead the way in showing at least a few sample novel end- user applications that will be enabled by SWIM and talk about them too.
SWIM on its own will never have a business case.
SWIM combined with better legacy and brilliant new applications will be a winner.