CSS-FD RRA Notice to Industry_Rev1.pdf

11/24/2021 693KA8-21-PSIR-APC-01 Page 1 of 7

Response Date/Time: December 10, 2021, 4:00 PM EDT

Contracting Officer: Jorge R. Martell (jorge.r.martell@faa.gov)

1. Purpose

This is a notice for participation in the Federal Aviation Administration’s Common Support

Services – Flight Data (CSS-FD) program Risk Reduction Activity (RRA) demonstration. This notice serves the following purposes:

(1) Inform industry of this activity.

(2) Solicits participation and feedback from airspace users and stakeholders in this demonstration.

Industry participation will assist the FAA in validating the CSS-FD capability and reducing risk to the program investment. The System Wide Information Management (SWIM) program office and Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) organization plan to undertake an

RRA to reduce the investment risk to overall CSS-FD Program schedule and costs—as well as to increase stakeholder buy-in—through early evaluation and refinement of proposed functionality.

The RRA will run as a demonstration system for testing purposes across multiple government lab environments—including the Florida NextGen Test Bed (FTB) and the NextGen Innovation Lab at the Volpe Center.

Within the RRA scope, key CSS-FD functions will be grouped into logical capabilities. These capabilities will be allocated to time-phased Sprints for further decomposition, design, software coding and testing, integration, and implementation. Iterative checkpoints with industry during each Sprint will allow for feedback to be considered during the development of the features. Each

Sprint will culminate with a demonstration event, during which industry participants (Airlines, Vendors, etc.) will assist in walking through use cases that validate the functionality of each

Sprint. Upon completion of a Sprint demonstration event, the intent is for participants to continue to try out the functions deployed to the “operative” CSS-FD prototype architecture while features for the follow-on Sprints are developed in parallel.

Sprint 1 of the CSS-FD RRA runs from the beginning of Q4 CY21 through the end of Q4 CY22 with the potential for follow-on Sprints for additional functionality as indicated below.

11/24/2021 693KA8-21-PSIR-APC-01 Page 2 of 7

Table 1: Functionality by Sprint

Note: The allocation of features to Sprints is subject to change in response to evolving program requirements, feedback received during prior Sprints, constraints outside the control of the

Program, or other Agency (FAA) decisions.

2. CSS-FD RRA Request for Industry Participation

The FAA requests participation in the Risk Reduction Activities (RRAs) described below in support of investment planning for CSS-FD and provides an avenue for users to provide feedback to the FAA. The basis of the RRA will be a limited-implementation, prototype architecture created via a rapid development / deployment approach.

For background and more information on CSS-FD please refer to Appendix A & B at the end of this document.

2.1. CSS-FD RRA Sprint 1 Functionality

The following functionality is planned for Sprint 1:

Flight Plan Filing Service

Provide Interface/Connection for the eAU(s)

Receive FF-ICE Flight Plans from eAU(s) for filing

Validate Flight Plans (FIXM/FF-ICE format) o For more information on FIXM/FF-ICE formatting and guidance visit:

https://fixm.aero/

Globally Unique Flight Identifier (GUFI) Management

Provide Submission Response to End Users (ACK/REJ) with justification if rejected

Sprint 1

Process Flight Plans and responses

Sprint 2

Process Trial Requests and responses

Enhance response constraint feedback

Sprint 3

Accept Preliminary Flight Plans (PFPLs) and responses

Sprint 4

Efficiency- Critical System Availability https://fixm.aero/

11/24/2021 693KA8-21-PSIR-APC-01 Page 3 of 7

Provide Filing Status (Accepted/Not-Accepted) with feedback (ATC-amended Flight

Plan)

2.2. CSS-FD RRA Industry Involvement

To participate in this Risk Reduction Activity, applicants must be able to meet the minimum requirements defined below.

Industry Engagement for Sprint 1 (Minimum Requirements):

Ability to send FF-ICE Flight Plans in FIXM 4.2 and Flight Plan Updates (with GUFI)

Ability to receive a Submission Response (ACK/REJ with justification)

Ability to receive a Filing Status (Accept/Not-Accepted) with feedback (ATC-amended

Flight Plan)

Current connection to the SWIM Test/Development environment via the NESG (preferred but not required)

Industry participation includes the following:

Attend industry participant kickoff webinar

Work with FAA POC to set up/confirm connectivity to the SWIM/Test/Development environment and to the CSS-FD RRA prototype

Attend the demonstration event and other workgroups / technical interchanges

Support the execution of use cases (testing scenarios)

Participate in lab trials / try-outs (ad-hoc testing of the system)

Provide feedback to prototype functionality

2.2.1. CSS-FD RRA Sprint 1 Schedule

The FAA intends for the RRA to run from approximately the beginning of Q4 CY21 through the end of Q4 CY22. Participants will be provided with a more detailed schedule upon selection.

2.2.2. CSS-FD RRA Evaluation Factors

Participants need to only meet the minimum requirements in section 2.2 to participate in this

RRA.

3. Registration Requests

3.1. CSS-FD RRA Participation

This Industry Notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes and all information provided is subject to change. It does not constitute a solicitation or a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. This Industry Notice does not commit the FAA to contract for any supply or service. Furthermore, the FAA is not currently seeking proposals. Responders are advised that the FAA will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this Industry Notice. The Government will not assume liability for costs incurred by any

11/24/2021 693KA8-21-PSIR-APC-01 Page 4 of 7 attendee for travel expenses or marketing efforts. All costs associated with responding to this

Industry Notice will be solely at the responding party's expense.

Participation in the RRA will be virtual only, no travel is required. Virtual demonstrations, trials/tryouts and any troubleshooting that is needed will be conducted via teleconference or video conference.

Interested parties must register to participate in the RRA and submit questions (if any), related to

Sections 2 and 3, no later than December 10, 2021 at 5PM EDT. The FAA will confirm participant registration no later than 5PM EDT December 17, 2021 and provide additional information and next steps.

Registration Requests: For those interested in participating in this activity, please submit your request to 9-AWA-SWIM@faa.gov (and cc to the CO) with the Subject line: “CSS-FD RRA

Registration” and following information:

Company name and address

Attendee name(s) (please limit to three (3) attendees)

Attendee phone number; email address

List your company’s experience with flight planning and filing (please limit to two (2) pages)

Appendix A: CSS-FD Background

NextGen is a comprehensive overhaul of our National Airspace System (NAS) to make air travel more convenient and dependable, while ensuring flight operations are as safe, secure, and efficient as possible. The transformation to NextGen requires capabilities and technologies enabling more efficient operations. SWIM, a NextGen transformational program, is the information-sharing platform that allows members of the aviation community to access the specific information they need, in the way they need it, to facilitate an innovative and efficiently run NAS.

CSS-FD will support the Flight & Flow – Information for a Collaborative Environment (FF-ICE) data exchange using the Flight Information Exchange Model (FIXM) standard. CSS-FD is a service available to the broad aviation enterprise for flight planning, flight plan filing, and for the exchange of real-time, dynamic, flight information. It will provide a single interface to the NAS to accept and validate flight planning information; to provide NAS flight restrictions as feedback to airspace users with respect to planned flights allowing them to improve and optimize flight trajectories before departure; to file flight plans and receive feedback on amended routes; and to share flight data.

NextGen and the SWIM program office are working together on an RRA for CSS-FD to reduce the investment risk to the overall CSS-FD program as well as to increase stakeholder buy-in through early evaluation and refinement of proposed functionality. The basis of the RRA will be a limited-implementation, prototype architecture created via a rapid development / deployment approach. The RRA will run as a demonstration system for testing purposes across multiple mailto:swim@faa.gov?subject=CSS-FD%20RRA%20Registration

11/24/2021 693KA8-21-PSIR-APC-01 Page 5 of 7 government lab environments—including the Florida NextGen Test Bed (FTB) and the NextGen

Innovation Lab at the Volpe Center.

Appendix B: CSS-FD Overview - FAA Legacy Flight Planning, Flight Plan Filing, Flight

Data Sharing, and Anticipated CSS-FD

The intent of this overview is to describe, at a high level, the operation of both the FAA’s existing methods to plan and file a flight plan and share flight data in the National Airspace (NAS) and the

FAA’s planned CSS-FD Flight Planning and Filing system. CSS-FD is a future FAA program that will address shortfalls in the current flight planning, flight plan filing, and flight data sharing infrastructure and processes.

Overview (Present Legacy Environment)

Currently there are disparate methods to plan and file a flight plan and share flight data in the

NAS. Flight planning directly with the FAA is limited to Airspace Users (AUs) that are

Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) participants. These participants include a set of aviation community stakeholders that participate in increased information exchange to improve air traffic flow management. They use dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) connections to exchange data with the Traffic Flow Management (TFM) System (TFMS) to support FAA management of traffic flows. Other AUs plan using internal or third-party systems.

Flight plan filing is done through multiple avenues. In general, high-volume AUs use the National

Airspace Data Interchange Network (NADIN) Messaging Rehost (NMR) for exchange of flight plan data with NAS Air Traffic Control (ATC) automation. Other AUs submit flight plans using a variety of means including: third-party vendors, Flight Service Stations (FSS), or the Operational and Supportability Implementation System (OASIS) in Alaska. For flight data sharing, data consumers receive most data through one or more SWIM flight data services (e.g., SWIM Flight

Data Publication Service (SFDPS)), Traffic Flow Management Data Service (TFMData).

However, some FAA systems and other governmental systems receive data through legacy data feeds.

The shortfalls with the current environment are categorized into two areas—Flight Planning and

Flight Plan Filing, and Flight Data Sharing – as described below.

1. Flight Planning and Flight Plan Filing

The current NAS flight planning and flight plan filing environment has limitations that reduce efficiency and predictability. It does not provide the infrastructure to support key FAA initiatives, such as Trajectory Based Operations (TBO).

Lack of needed information exchange during flight planning

Disparate methods and mechanisms for collaborating and applying flight plan information between airspace users and the FAA

Inefficient processes and procedures for flight plan handling

Difficulty in transitioning to contingency operations

11/24/2021 693KA8-21-PSIR-APC-01 Page 6 of 7

2. Flight Data Sharing

Existing Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems (NAS and external) historically share data with other systems through point-to-point interfaces. Each point-to-point communication typically has its own data formats, communications protocol, and physical connection. To move away from this paradigm, the SWIM program office has made flight data from a number of important NAS systems available in a loosely coupled manner using a Service

Oriented Architecture (SOA). The SWIM infrastructure allows a wide variety of consumers to acquire flight data. Although it is easier for systems to obtain flight data via SWIM, there are still many problems in processing the flight data, including:

Lack of complete, correct, and timely data about flights, limiting the amount, quality, and usefulness of functionality that is provided to the end user o Disparate services provide flight data for different phases of flight and some services provide flight data for the same phases of flight but in different formats. There is no source of a uniform, reconciled. end-to-end view of flight data.

It is more expensive to develop, operate, maintain, and enhance systems that use and exchange flight data than it needs to be.

CSS-FD Overview (Future Environment)

CSS-FD will provide modernized, flexible, consistent, and robust services for the exchange of flight data among internal and external NAS users through standard interfaces. CSS-FD will utilize FIXM international data exchange standards and facilitate use of richer, more detailed flight information for Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) and better-informed

CDM.

The flight planning function is based on international standards, allowing Enhanced Airspace

Users (eAUs) to share early intent or PFPLs with the FAA, and includes a pre-departure trajectory negotiation process through the use of Trial Requests (TRs) or PFPLs which enables the eAUs to receive consistent, aggregated feedback on Traffic Flow Management

(TFM) and Air Traffic Control (ATC) constraints applicable to the flight. By enabling the eAUs to address constraints during the planning phase, the need to change the flight plan when the flight is airborne is reduced, increasing predictability while also reducing crew and controller workload.

Flight plan filing includes the actions of filing a flight plan in the NAS, as well as any subsequent updates to or cancellation of the filed flight plan. CSS-FD will facilitate coordination of needed changes once the flight plan is filed. CSS-FD enhancements will enable users and FAA systems to have a consistent view of a flight’s route or 4-Dimensional

Trajectory (4DT) and flight-specific applicable constraints. Users’ flight planning accuracy will be improved by CSS-FD-provided flight-specific feedback with applicable Traffic

Management Initiatives (TMIs), NAS automation-applied ATC Adapted Routes, and static airspace constraints described in Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)/Letters of

Agreement (LOAs), which will increase the likelihood that flights will be cleared as filed.

11/24/2021 693KA8-21-PSIR-APC-01 Page 7 of 7

The capabilities that support flight data sharing make flight data available to systems that use that data to perform operational and analytical functions throughout the entire life cycle of a flight

(i.e., from pre-departure to arrival). This will be done through a modern, standards-based flight data exchange mechanism that will simplify global, national, and inter-agency data sharing and will consolidate and reconcile values for flight data. Flight data will be published in an expandable and machine-readable format that has been filtered according to data access policies established by the FAA and criteria specified by the CSS-FD consumer.

CSS-FD will provide the following services to users:

The provision of a common access method to exchange flight and constraint data between the AUs and the core NAS systems during flight planning and flight plan filing.

o CSS-FD will improve the exchange of early intent (pre-flight plan filing) data, NAS constraint checking, and flight plan submission. CSS-FD will streamline the transition from early flight planning coordination to the actual flight plan filing event by consolidating these processes, which today involve disparate interfaces.

o The automated collaboration and negotiation of trajectory information will be supported by a consistent view of static constraints (e.g., ATC adapted routes), dynamic constraints (e.g., TFM constraints), and early intent information; the exchange of four-dimensional trajectories; and the identification of detailed performance capabilities (e.g., area navigation/required navigation performance capabilities).

The distribution of flight data to systems that use flight data to perform operational and analytical functions throughout the entire lifecycle of a flight. CSS-FD will implement a modern, standards-based flight data exchange mechanism that will simplify global, national, and inter-agency data sharing. CSS-FD will produce consolidated, reconciled values for flight data. CSS-FD will publish flight data in an expandable and machine-readable format that has been filtered according to data access policies established by the

FAA and criteria specified by the CSS-FD consumer.