System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is one of the mainstays of both SESAR and NextGen. It has been known for some time now that a lot of the shortcomings in air traffic management (ATM) are directly or indirectly related to poor management and limited or non-existent sharing of the sea of information actually available at the various partners. SWIM will enable and encourage information sharing resulting in vastly improved ATM decisions based on a common picture of the ATM environment. You can read more about the SWIM concept here.
In the United States, Boeing and IBM have just finished a small project to demonstrate that it is in fact possible to provide timely and consistent information across organizational boundaries that can help improve decisions that become necessary when unforeseen events occur. They have in fact shown that SWIM type information sharing is feasible and useful.
In crisis situations the sharing of up to the minute flight data (including surveillance data), information on restrictions, weather and facility availability is particularly important if decisions are to be timely and effective.
The Boeing-IBM project looked at new technologies to address the need for collecting/collating and delivering a wide range of information at very short notice.
The study has shown how the use of appropriate real-time messaging can ensure that data gathered from sensors located on aircraft, radar and other locations can be made to arrive at specified times and in a specified sequence so that end-user applications can then interpret the data and generate the necessary information for the users concerned.
In Europe, Lockheed Martin and Spain’s Indra have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on various aspects of SESAR and NextGen developments. One of the areas concerned is SWIM. Although the concept of SWIM as understood in Europe and the US is more or less the same, there are subtle differences which, if not addressed in a timely manner, can lead to diverging solutions and expensive additional requirements against both airborne and ground equipment.
A few years ago in a study made for EUROCONTROL we have shown that it is possible to create “islands” of SWIM capability that do have their own internal characteristics but which are still seamlessly interoperable via the use of so called “common services”. Obviously, agreement on at least those common services is absolutely essential if the above mentioned expensive additional requirements are to be avoided.
The Lockheed Martin/Indra co-operation can only be hailed as a very important step in the right direction.