Air traffic management surveillance tracker and server

ARTAS makes use of proven multi-sensor tracking technology to deliver an outstanding level of accuracy and reliability using PSR, SSR, Mode-S, WAM and ADS-B (both Terrestrial & Space-Based) surveillance sources to build an accurate Air Situation Picture for Air Traffic Control & Management purposes.

What differentiates ARTAS from any other SDPS is the overall concept of a distributed system, consisting of an assembly of identical units that can all coordinate together and act as one region-wide integrated surveillance system.

In addition to this, ARTAS is a one-fits-all solution for EUROCONTROL Member States Organisations (EMSO), flexible enough to fulfil many operational needs.

By using the so-called Tracker Tuning Areas, it is possible to apply a dedicated set of tracker parameters to a predefined airspace volume, enabling ARTAS to perform its tracking function according to specific operational service requirements.

The various surveillance sensors deliver their data flows to ARTAS through a Regional Surveillance WAN (Wide Area Network). Each ARTAS Unit processes surveillance data received from the Regional Surveillance WAN and acts as a server, through the EUROCONTROL Surveillance Data Distribution System (SDDS), providing continuous aircraft track data to the ATC units and other systems (e.g. safety-nets, military ATC units, flow management units, etc.) that are connected to the network.

The seamless integration of all units allows for the application of 5 NM separation minima throughout the covered area, including the transfers of traffic from one ATC unit to the following. 3 NM separation may also be applied, following an in-depth operational evaluation of the ARTAS behaviour in local environments.

In addition to the Track-State vector elements (i.e. position, speed, mode-of-flight etc.), which are maintained by the Tracker, the served tracks consist of other data of interest for the Users, including information related to flight plans, if provided to ARTAS by the Flight Data Processing Systems (i.e. call sign, departure/arrival airports, type of aircraft, etc.).

An ARTAS system comprises online and offline components, representing about 2.1 million lines of source code, written in ADA, C, Java, Python and Bash.

ARTAS has four groups of main functions computer software configuration items (CSCI):

• ROUTER BRIDGE (RBR) is the ARTAS interface with the external world, handling the input data flows from the surveillance sensors and providing the tracking output towards the downstream systems;
• TRACKER (TRK) processes the sensor input data and maintains the latest Air Situation Picture, represented in the Tracks database;
• SERVER (SRV) performs the Track and Sensor Information Services management of all requests from Users and the transmission of the relevant sets of track/sensor data to these Users;
• SYSTEM MANAGER (MMS) performs the functions related to the supervision and management of the ARTAS Unit.

Depending on its configuration, an ARTAS System can be made of one node (non-redundant configuration) or two nodes (fully redundant configuration), where each node is running the full set of CSCIs mentioned above and is connected to its partner via a bonded Ethernet connection, called Internal LAN, which is responsible for keeping the Master and the Slave node synchronised.

With the latest ARTAS releases, it is possible to go beyond the nominal capacity of 30 sensors and 4,096 system tracks of up to 255 sensors and 32,000 system tracks (subject to validation). In addition, Users have the possibility to customise and fine-tune the system behaviour in each Terminal Manoeuvring Areas (TMA), Inhibit Code Change Areas (ICCA), En-route Areas and Ground Movement Areas (GMA), by means of the ARTAS Tuning Areas functionality.

Today, ARTAS tracks close to 90% of European daily flights at 43 Air Traffic Control Centres. In total, around 100 ARTAS units are currently deployed in the EMSO Area.

ARTAS is also being deployed operationally in various Non-EUROCONTROL Member States Organisations (NEMSO), such as Iceland, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Indonesia, Papa New Guinea and USA.

ARTAS was originally developed according to the DOD-STD-2167A, MIL-STD-498 and J-STD-016-1995 standards.

ARTAS and its CAMOS-related processes are compliant with the ED-153 Software Assurance Level 3 (SWAL 3) and they have been certified ISO 9001.

Since 2012, EUROCONTROL has been issuing an EC Declaration of Suitability for Use for all new ARTAS system releases.

Recent ARTAS releases are aligned with Regulation (EU) 2017/373 to facilitate Service Providers to create their safety support assessment and/or safety assessment.

CAMOS

The Centralised ARTAS Maintenance and Operational Support (CAMOS) is a service team at the EUROCONTROL Headquarters in Brussels that supports and performs the software maintenance for ARTAS on behalf of EMSOs.

CAMOS is in charge of:

• supporting activities at a European level to the numerous EMSO ARTAS systems (both Operational and Pre-Operational);
• preparing and maintaining the ARTAS Courses, held at the EUROCONTROL Aviation Learning Centre (Luxemburg), to train ARTAS Users;
• verifying and releasing bug fixes, updates and new ARTAS versions, avoiding any regression;

The EUROCONTROL CAMOS Team:

• provides a Helpdesk service, by answering ARTAS Support Requests (ASRs) raised by ARTAS Users, normally for EMSO ANSP representatives;
• processes ARTAS Trouble Reports (ATRs) and ARTAS Change Proposals (ACPs), including reproducing ATRs on CAMOS reference platforms and discussing technical matters with Users, Industrial Partners and Subcontractors;
• manages the developments performed by its Contractors;
• produces and publishes ARTAS technical documentation (via iCAMOS tool);
• participates in Factory Acceptance Testing;
• Tests and distributes patches and new ARTAS versions delivered by Industrial Partners to ARTAS Users (via iCAMOS tool).

The CAMOS service does not include hardware support.

The Local ARTAS Maintenance and Operational Support (LAMOS) team is the Local ARTAS Maintenance and Operational Support and therefore shares the ARTAS maintenance with the CAMOS Team at HQ.

The LAMOS team covers the day-to-day maintenance of the ARTAS systems and  is responsible for:

• verifying system behaviour;
• recording any anomalies;
• collecting evidence related to anomalies;
• reporting to CAMOS any troubles or anomalies;
• deploying, testing and validating patches, updates or new releases of the ARTAS system in strict cooperation with the CAMOS team.

Licence

ARTAS and CAMOS can be accessed by:

• EVALUATORS, upon of signature of the an ARTAS EVALUATION Licence (this does not include the CAMOS Service);
• ARTAS USERS within EUROCONTROL MEMBER STATE ORGANISATIONs (EMSO) (including organisations that have signed a Comprehensive Agreements), upon of signature of CAMOS Service Level Agreement (this includes the CAMOS Service);
• ARTAS Distributors for Non EUROCONTROL MEMBER STATE ORGANISATIONs (NEMSO), upon of signature of the ARTAS Distributor License Agreement (this does not include the CAMOS Service);

To request a licence, please contact us via the contact form on this page.

Fees

The ARTAS software (in binary form, no source code) and the CAMOS service are currently free of charge to EMSO that have signed the SLA.

The ARTAS software (in binary form, no source code) is also available to ARTAS Distributors for NEMSO, upon signature of a Distributor License Agreement (DLA) and fees as described in the DLA (no CAMOS service is available in this case).

The ARTAS software (in binary form, no source code) is also available for evaluation purposes to interested parties upon signature of an EVALUATION license, which is limited in time but free of charge (no CAMOS service is available in this case).

Please contact us via the contact form on this page in order to request a licence.

The main channels of communication with the CAMOS Team are the tools listed below.

At our EUROCONTROL Aviation Learning Centre in Luxembourg, we offer the following ARTAS courses:

• SUR-ARTAS;
• SUR-ARTAS-LAMOS;
• SUR-ARTAS-TRK and
• SUR-ARTAS-TUN.

The Course material is available to EMSO ANSPs (upon signature of a Non-Disclosure Agreement) and to ARTAS Distributors.