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Requirement

Guidance

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Exchanged information is “information that is shared between actors in the ATM Network”.

Documented means that the exchange information is represented in a formalised form such as XML Schema or a data catalogue.

An information definition is “a formal representation of information concepts or data concepts”.

Types of information definitions

• Disambiguate from the examples section. The following are types of Information definitions.
• It could be convenient to provide links to existing information definitions (external references, see AIXM examples)

Data Catalogue

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UML Model

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Exchange Model

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Verification Support

Completeness:

Check that:

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The specification gives examples of types of information definitions:

• standardised information exchange models
• descriptions of information exchanged by services
• data catalogues
• information exchanges captured as part of a business process model

The following section gives an overview of these.

Standardised information exchange models

Standardised information exchange models include:

• Aeronautical Information Exchange Model (AIXM)
• Flight Information Exchange Model (FIXM)
• Weather Information Exchange Model (WXXM)
• ICAO Meteorological Information Exchange Model (IWXXM)
• Aerodrome Mapping Exchange Model (AMXM)

They are agreed and published by a particular community of interest. There may be multiple versions of an exchange model e.g. IWXXM 1.1 was used by the SESAR programme but a v2.1 is now available and v3 is in pre-operations.

The exchange models listed above relate to three ICAO business domains (aeronautical, weather and flight information). However, other exchange models exist.

A service description may refer to one of these exchange models in order to define its payload.

The figure below provides an extract of the AMXM XML schema. It details "element name", "documentation" and "type" information.

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Description of information exchange by services

Services are used to exchange information. Often, the service makes use of a standardised information exchange model as the format for the information exchange. However, other services will develop a more particular payload model. This can be done in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) as given in the figure below.

The figure is taken from a service description for a service exchanging METAR information. It shows the names and definitions of the "EntityItems" that will form the exchanged information.

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Data catalogues

Data catalogues are used to list details on the exchanged information. They are often used as a way of agreeing the information that is to be captured and exchanged as part of a publication process. The figure below is taken from the ICAO PANS-AIM Data Catalogue. It is in tabular format and details "subjects", "properties", "types" and their "descriptions". A data catalogue can contain many more items such as requirements on the accuracy of the data to be collected.

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Information exchanges captured as part of a business process model

Business process modelling is a key art the service oriented approach. It is used to identify information exchange requirements, including the names and definitions of the elements being exchanged throughout the process.

Verification Support

Completeness

Check that:

[  ] There is an information definition. 

[  ] The information definition covers all of the information

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as defined in the scope statement.

Notes:

1. The information definition can be a standalone document or embedded into another document such as a service description.(A set of documents
2. The information definition can be provided instead made up of a single one)

Examples/Best Practice

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Examples of complete information definitions are given at xxx

Add list of examples e.g. ED-254, AIXM, etc.

no example needed 

References

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1. set of documents.
2. The scope statement contained in the information definition helps to answer this check.

Examples

Example information definitions are:

• Aeronautical Information Exchange Model (AIXM)
• EUROCAE ED-254 - Arrival Sequence Service Performance Standard. This contains a chapter defining the information. It also includes a AIRM conformance statement.
• Flight Information Exchange Model (FIXM)
• Aerodrome Mapping Exchange Model (AMXM)
• ICAO Meteorological Information Exchange Model (IXWWM)

A fictional example is available to show how the requirements could be satisfied by an XML Schema file and in a Data Catalogue.