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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

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26-27 May 2014

Contact: tsbworkshops@itu.int


Introduction

Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications and Multimedia is hosting 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.

Participation in the meeting will be by invitation only.

For further information please contact Martin Adolph (tsbfgac@itu.int; Tel.: +41 22 730 6828).

Background

The events surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 highlight the need to improve the identification and tracking of commercial aircraft in flight.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are instrumental to the safe and efficient operation of tens of thousands of flights each day. Modern technology solutions could aid in monitoring the location of aircraft, thereby improving the efficiency with which authorities launch rescue efforts in emergency situations, for instance, by leveraging cloud computing and big data analytics.

Ongoing discussion, at various levels and on a range of platforms, is considering the feasibility of streaming flight data from aircraft to the ground in real-time. Subjects debated within this discussion include the geographical coverage of proposed monitoring systems; the type of data to be transmitted to the ground and the required transmission rates; data security, storage and analytics; ownership of flight data; and the costs and changes to business models required to implement such systems on a global scale.

Government and industry agree that the way forward should be one based on international standards.

Objectives

The meeting will take stock of proposed technology solutions as well as the challenges and barriers to their global adoption, and to move this discussion forward.

Target Audience

Experts from key stakeholders such as ICT solution providers, airlines, international organizations, in particular the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), satellite companies, terrestrial solution providers and governments.