Federal Aviation

Administration

REDAC / NAS Ops 

Maureen Keegan, AJV-73 

March, 2018

Operations Concept 

Development & Infrastructure 

(ATDP) 

BLI Number: 1A01C
Why is this program necessary? 

• The FAA is proceeding with NAS modernization for the National Airspace System. Concept development and 

validation is necessary to investigate specific concept elements underpinning these artifacts, and to drive out 

operational and technical requirements and implications for human factors, training and procedures. Without this, 

uncertain, unreliable, and potentially non-viable and non-beneficial changes to the NAS could occur. Ultimately, 

this program ensures that enhancements to the NAS are operationally sound and that sufficient risk mitigation 

activities for new concepts are completed. This program contributes to the FAA’s support for RTCA, a non-profit 

association that develops standards based on manufacturers, government, and aviation operator inputs. RTCA 

also recommends operational improvements to increase the efficiency of air transportation. The development of 

standards and global harmonization activities across the ATM community is essential to successful concepts and 

requirements development. This program contributes to the FAA’s support for RTCA, a non-profit association that 

develops standards based on manufacturers, government, and aviation operator inputs. RTCA also recommends 

operational improvements to increase the efficiency of air transportation.

• ATDP also;

• Investigates specific concept elements

• Drives out operational and technical requirements and implications for human factors, training and 

procedures

• Assesses the interaction of changing roles and responsibilities of NAS service providers and pilots, airspace 

changes, procedural changes and new mechanized systems for distributing weather, traffic and other flight 

related information

• Tests the assumptions behind common situational awareness and distributed information processing

Operations Concept 

Development & Infrastructure - ATDP 
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Operations Concept 

Development & Infrastructure - ATDP 

What are the benefits to the FAA

The activity supports the FAA’s Strategic Initiatives by delivering benefits through technology and 

infrastructure; Concept validation supports development, analysis, and simulation of new concepts to 

assess requirements and to evaluate the impact of the concept on system capacity, efficiency, safety 

and human performance. Evaluation criteria include the following:

• Impact/Improvement to Air Traffic Service Providers, airspace users, and automation that could 

increase capacity,

• Impact/Improvement on airspace structure which may increase productivity and hence capacity, 

• Impact/Improvement on communication, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) requirements to 

support the FAA's efforts to reducing cost, increasing capacity and efficiency and;

• Impact/Improvement on automation, display, and facility configuration elements to increase 

productivity and hence capacity.

What determines program success

Success is measured by the completion of the goals identified in multi-year plans developed for each 

activity. Initiatives that successfully complete all the project goals identified are then presented as 

candidates for acquisition.
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Operations Concept Development & Infrastructure –

ATDP / BLI Number: 1A01C Overview Capabilities

People:

• Program Manager: Maureen Keegan 

• Subject Matter Experts: Traffic Managers, ATC, Discipline Experts, Airspace 

User Community 

• Research Partners: ANG, NASA, Mitre, Lincoln Labs, Volpe, Academia

Laboratories:

• MITRE

• Tech Center

• DAB Test Bed

• NASA

• Volpe
Focus Area

• Improved TBFM/TFMS Data Integration

 Objective: Explore the use of the TFMS toolset to strategically 

pre-condition demand into TBFM

 Leverages on-going research by NASA
Focus Area

• Improved TBFM/TFMS Data Integration

• Status:

 Development of Use Cases for a near-term capability 

is on-going. Final delivery planned for this summer.

 Developing plan for the execution of a near-term 

capability.
Initial TBO Gap Analysis

• TBO Vision  Time-Based Management (TBM) + PBN

“TBO is an ATM method for strategically planning, managing, and optimizing flights 

throughout the operation by using TBM, information exchange between air and 

ground systems, and the aircraft’s ability to fly precise paths in time and space.” -

FAA Vision for TBO

• Focus on delivery of capabilities for approximately next 5 years (~2022)

• Accounts for budgeted implementation waterfalls of key capabilities 

• Initial set of capabilities enable the first comprehensive TBM 

environment phase

• Interdependencies among initial set of capabilities are strongly coupled
TBFM-Airborne Metering

STARS

TBFM-Departure 

Scheduling 

TBFM-EDC

TBFM-IDAC

RNP-RF

TFMS – Improved Demand Predictions (IDP)

TBFM 

T-to-T

PBN SIDS

PBN Equipage

STARS

TBFM/ERAM -

GIM-S

Speed Advisories

TBO Capabilities Sequencing by Domain

Operational Context

TBFM - GIM-S Extended 

Metering/Coupled 

Scheduling

Existing Capability 2019+ 

Deployment

In-Process 

Deployment

TBFM/ERAM - Path 

Stretch

Data Communications

TFDM

PBN STARS

TBFM-Runway 

Sequence and 

Assignment

ERAM 

Enhancements

TBFM/STARSSlot Markers

TBFM/STARSSpeed Advisories

Weather Information – NextGen Weather Processor (NWP) /Common Support Services-Weather (CSS-Wx)

TFMS-ABRR

TBFM-RTA/TOAC

PERTI Processes and Procedures

TFMS

GDP/CTOP

TFMS

AFP/CTOP

ATPA

EoR

TFMS

GDP/AFP/CTOP

TFMS-PDRR TFMS-IDRP

TFDM

TFMS-Surface 

Situational Awareness 

(Surface Viewer)

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Space Integration Enhancements

• Goal: Leverage work to date to develop ATO capabilities, 

services, systems and procedures to integrate space operations 

into the NAS

– Support the acquisition process by addressing shortfalls from preliminary 

Shortfall Analysis Report (pSAR) 2015 and Validation

– Phased investment approach integrating various stakeholders, current capability 

efforts, and future identified capabilities 

– Leverage extensive efforts/research conducted by NextGen (ANG), System 

Operations (AJR) and the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST)

– Prioritize operational capabilities for Space Integration Enhancements Work 

Packages
Strategy
Space Integration Enhancements Next Steps 

(from last report out)
Prioritization Background

Objective: Develop a prioritized list of conceptual solutions in 

preparation for the Space Integration Enhancements Investment 

Analysis

 Utilizing SME input, provide an independent, cross domain perspective 

for the relative priority of the operational needs.

 Analyze SME input and apply weighting schema to determine the 

prioritized list of conceptual solutions.
Operational Focus Group
HQ Stakeholder Focus Group
Prioritization Results
Differences in Field and HQ Inputs
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Questions?