Boeing, IBM Research Pilot Programs For Information
Sharing
The completion of a pilot research project designed to show how
officials from multiple organizations can have more timely,
consistent and complete information to resolve fast-changing or
unpredictable aviation events was announced Tuesday by Boeing and
IBM.
The quicker availability of better information potentially can
help authorities make more informed decisions to protect passenger
and national security when airspace anomalies are detected, such as
when an aircraft is found to be traveling off course. The project
has demonstrated that advances in software can accelerate and
orchestrate the flow of information from sensors and networks on a
nationwide scale.
To better assess and manage these events, officials have been
striving to implement "network centric operations" -- the quick
exchange of information from a variety of electronic sources -- to
gain better "situational awareness" of the many aspects of an
aviation event. These situations require the sharing of updated and
detailed information about temporary or ongoing airspace
restrictions, flight plans, reports about weather and natural
phenomena such as volcanoes, radar and beacon tracks, or the track
of an aircraft sent to investigate an unfolding, midair event.
The Boeing-IBM project involves the research and development of
new technology to overcome the technical challenge of assembling
and delivering such a variety of information at a moment's notice.
The team has applied "Responsive, Reliable and Real-Time" (R3)
Messaging, which can help ensure that complex data gathered from
distributed sensors -- located on aircraft, radar and other ground
locations -- can arrive at a specific time and in a sequence.
Additional software can then correlate and analyze the information
efficiently.
"One can well think of the R3 Messaging technology as a kind of
mail carrier, train conductor, telephone switchboard operator and
traffic police officer, all rolled into one, synchronizing
nationwide -- or even worldwide -- logistics," said Paul Giangarra,
an IBM Distinguished Engineer who linked IBM's messaging technology
with Boeing's business needs. "It moves information gathered from
sensors in a secure, predictable manner."
Added IBM Researcher Dr. Hui Lei, who managed the project team:
"R3 Messaging exploits novel techniques to discover routing paths
and schedule message deliveries with remarkable dependability. It
is quite useful for moving critical and time-sensitive information
between the physical and digital worlds. By integrating those two
spheres, it makes it easier to make better and smarter
decisions."
The project was part of IBM Research's First-of-a-Kind Program,
leveraging internal research and development performed by Boeing
Research & Technology's Advanced Air Traffic Management group.
The program pairs IBM researchers with clients to explore how
emerging technologies can solve real-world business problems.
"R3 messaging is directly applicable to the work we do in
aviation information management," said Paul Comitz, Boeing Advanced
ATM chief architect, System-Wide Information Management. "It
provides capabilities that we need."
Enterprise messaging technology, and the ability to manage a
barrage of large amounts of data, has existed for some time. But
until now, it has only been able to ensure the routine delivery, at
an unspecified time, of electronic information within a
self-contained computer network. Using new, patent-pending
algorithms, IBM computer science researchers have now taken it
further: For the first time, messaging technology ensures the
synchronization of rapidly changing business events on a massive
scale, with the ability to handle diverse and complicated
systems.