Common DLS governance for Europe (CoDE project) facilitated
About the project
CoDE project was launched by A6 Alliance with the support of SESAR Deployment Manager in March 2020. Following the work done in CEF 2016 Path II project and CEF 2017 IP1 under the coordination of SDM, the CoDE project aims at paving the way and accelerating as much as possible the establishment of a Common European Data Link governance within the SES Digital Backbone framework and at selecting the European Datalink Service Provider (DSP).
The A6 initiative is fully aligned with the SDM key recommendations included in the “Report on DLS Architecture and Deployment Strategy” and, in particular, with the recommendation “to follow the DLS Deployment strategy roadmap” that envisages to establish:
the DLS Governance at the beginning of 2021 or earlier if possible;
the Datalink Service Provider (DSP) by early 2023 and start operations in 2025 or earlier if possible.
According to this roadmap, the CoDE project has the aim of adopting the following two recommendations:
DLS governance establishment through the signature of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) among interested DLS users (Q1 2021),
Selection of the future Datalink Service Provider (DSP) by Q3 2022 and DSP establishment early 2023.
Currently, the CoDE project is participated by Croatia Control, DFS, DSNA, LFV, NATS, NAV Portugal, PANSA and is coordinated by ENAV and ENAIRE.
The project is open to all DLS Users. For the time being, based on the Path II project outcomes, since the future DSP will provide only ATS data, the notion of DLS users is limited only to ANSPs.
To achieve the expected targets, involving the highest number of ANSPs that could become potential members of the future governance, a three-step approach has been decided:
Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) elaboration by CoDE partners;
MoC review, involving all interested ANSPs not yet part of CoDE project, asking for willingness to be part of the governance;
Once DSP will be established, invitation to the remaining ANSPs, who are not willing to join the governance but interested in the service, to procure it from the DSP (hopefully serving all SES area).
SDM involvement and the consultation process
The SDM, in its role of the CoDE project facilitator, has been supporting the following actions:
MoC (draft version) distribution and consultation among all ANSPs that are not CoDE Members;
Collection of ANSPs’ willingness to become a member of the future DLS Governance, signing the final Memorandum of Cooperation.
The roadmap for the consultation process concerning the “DLS Governance - Memorandum of Cooperation” document included:
26/10/2020 – SDM, together with CoDE project Members, organized a webinar to present the idea and the content of the project, the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) and the principles behind it.
20/11/2020 – delivery of ANSPs’ comments to the Memorandum of Cooperation and their intentions to become a DLS Governance Member.
11/12/2020 – SDM, together with CoDE project Members organized a virtual close out meeting to present and thoroughly discuss replies to the comments received and close the consultation process.
In the course of the consultation of the DLS governance MoC, over 70 comments from ANSPs were received and responded. Also, in the course of the consultation process, positive feedback on becoming the DLS governance member in the future were received from several ANSPs, namely: ANS CR, BULATSA, MATS, MUAC and ROMATSA. Some ANSPs requested to be kept informed on further developments concerning the project, including: ANS Finland, Austro Control, DCAC Cyprus, EANS, LGS, Oro Navigacija and Skyguide.
The DLS governance MoC will now go through a final strategic review and will be passed on to legal departments. It is expected that the MoC will be signed and the DLS governance establishment will be achieved by the end of Q1 2021.