Controlling Unit for Route Segment

Introduction

The ATS unit providing service for an airspace is not part of the minimum AIP data set but required in ENR 3 of PANS-AIM:

an indication of the controlling unit, its operating channel and, if applicable, its logon address, SATVOICE number, and any navigation, RCP and RSP specification(s) limitations.

Hence, in the scope of this guidelines it is considered conditional data.

The diagram below shows the AIXM classes, including the relevant data types, needed to encode that information.

AIXM 5.1(.1) does not provide a direct relationship between Unit and RouteSegment class.

The concerned Unit shall be encoded independently. According to the PANS-AIM Appendix 1 (Aeronautical Data Catalogue), at least the name shall be provided.

In addition, a Service provided by the Unit shall be encoded. The Service class has several specialised classes that have an association to a RoutePortion. The corresponding RoutePortion has to be encoded for the Service using the clientRoute property. One or more of these services may be provided for the same RoutePortion.

• AirTrafficControlService
• InformationService
• SearchRescueService

The type of service provided may be defined by the attribute Service.type. In addition also a Service.name may be provided.

The operation channel is encoded using the RadioCommunicationChannel class. The attribute frequencyTransmission and if applicable frequencyReception will carry the corresponding value and uom (see also Radio Communication Channel [RCC]).

The RadioCommunicationChannel has to be referenced by the adequate Service.

According to the PANS-AIM Appendix 1 (Aeronautical Data Catalogue) a specified code used for data link logon to the controlling ATS unit shall be provided if applicable.

• The AirTrafficControlService class contains two relevant attributes: dataLinkEnabled and dataLinkChannel.
• The InformationService class contains one relevant attribute: dataLink.
• The SearchRescueService class does not contain any relevant attribute.

However, via the ContactInformation class related to the Service class, corresponding attributes of the OnlineContact class may be used to encode that information. The code list for the network attribute contains a value 'ACARS'; which is defined as

Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. A datalink system that enables ground stations (airports, aircraft maintenance bases, etc.) and commercial aircraft to communicate without voice using a datalink system.

The linkage and protocol attribute may then be used to define the details about the logon address.

Coding Examples

The figure below shows how the information about the controlling unit is published in an AIP:

Coding Examples can be found in the AIP Data Set - Specimen (DONLON).