ITU to assist in real-time monitoring of flight data
ITU Membership calls for development of standards for aviation cloud
Geneva, 25 June 2014 – ITU has established a new Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring. The group will study the requirements for the telecommunication standards to enable an ‘aviation cloud’ for real-time monitoring of flight data, including those for the protection, security and ownership of flight data and the technical mechanisms and policies to govern access to these data.
The formation of the Focus Group comes in response to the call from the Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Malaysia, Mr Ahmad Shabery Cheek in March 2014 urging ITU to develop leading edge standards to facilitate the transmission of flight data in real-time. Subsequently, an “
Expert Dialogue on Real-time Monitoring of Flight Data, including the Black Box – the Need for International Standards in the Age of Cloud Computing and Big Data”, held in Kuala Lumpur, 26-27 May 2014 with the participation of airlines, aviation bodies, avionics and ICT companies, service providers, civil aviation authorities, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other international organizations, issued a
communiqué outlining a roadmap for the way forward.
Participation in the Focus Group will be open to all interests, including non-members of ITU, and it will work in close collaboration with ICAO, ICT solution providers, aircraft manufacturers, airlines and other standardization expert groups.
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré said that the call from Minister Shabery for an international effort to find solutions to monitor flight data in real time has been given top priority by ITU and its Membership.
“ITU has a long history of developing international telecommunication and ICT standards, policies and regulations and is offering to bring this competence to assist aviation,” said Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau. “I applaud our membership for the urgency with which it is addressing this issue by responding so quickly to Malaysia’s call for ITU action.”
The new Focus Group will study advances in cloud computing and data analytics to develop use cases for the application of state-of-the-art data analytics and data mining techniques in real-time. It will develop technical reports to provide the foundation for standards-based aviation clouds. In close collaboration with ICAO, the envisioned reports will address questions surrounding the type of data to be transmitted and the periodicity and reliability of its transmission, as well as the mechanisms to enable data security and privacy and the prevention of data misuse. The reports will be the basis for the development of telecommunications standards providing security and providing interoperable and secure aviation cloud systems.
Note to the editor:
ITU-T Focus Groups are formed in response to immediate ICT standardization demands, charged with laying the foundation for subsequent standardization work in membership-driven
ITU-T Study Groups. Focus Groups are open to organizations outside ITU’s membership and they are afforded greater flexibility in their chosen deliverables and working methods.
For more information, please contact:
Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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ITU to assist in real-time monitoring of flight data