WP3 progress: building end-to-end security into ATN/IPS

Work Package 3, led by Frequentis, prepares AMEA's second demonstration: multilink ATN/IPS (SESAR Solution 0569). ATN/IPS is the IP-based air-ground network that will succeed today's ATN/OSI, with security built in from end to end. Here is where the work stands in October 2026.

Why it matters

Satellite datalink for air traffic services already works on Airbus A320 and A330 aircraft, over today's ATN/OSI network. Boeing aircraft, which fly a significant share of European flights, have no satellite solution yet for these services. ATN/IPS is designed to change that: future IPS-equipped aircraft, Boeing aircraft included, will be able to use satellite datalink too, and relieve VDL Mode 2, whose capacity is expected to come under strong pressure between 2030 and 2035.

An IP network also needs strong security. Every aircraft, ground system and gateway has to prove its identity with digital certificates, issued and managed by a public key infrastructure (PKI). Bringing that capability, the distribution of PKI certificates, is what large-scale deployment needs most, and it is WP3's first objective.

What has been done since February 2026

• 19 February 2026: WP3 kicked off with the partners.
• Since July 2026: PKI workshops every two weeks, in coordination with EUROCONTROL's European Aviation Common PKI. The partners analyse the ICAO security standards (Docs 10090, 10095, 10145 and 10169) and work out how certificates will be issued, checked and renewed for aircraft and ground systems.
• September 2026: the initial ATN/IPS Demonstration Plan (D3.2) was submitted to CINEA and the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking.
• Avionics: Collins Aerospace's IPS communication management unit is already integrated in Boeing's aircraft systems laboratory in Seattle.
• Gateways: SITA has started specifying, and Airtel designing, the IPS-OSI gateways that will connect IPS aircraft to today's ground systems. Both will be developed in 2027–2028.

Seven lab-to-lab exercises

Rather than another round of experimental flight trials, WP3 connects laboratories in Europe and the United States. At the centre is Boeing's aircraft systems laboratory in Seattle, with a Boeing 737 test bench, linked over the air to Iris satellite communications and to IPS-capable VDL Mode 2 networks from SITA and Collins Aerospace.

The plan sets out seven exercises, from the third quarter of 2028 to the third quarter of 2029:

1. a PKI ready for operations;
2. IPS avionics from Collins Aerospace and Honeywell on the Boeing 737 test bench;
3. IPS-OSI gateways from Airtel and SITA;
4. redundancy and management of the ground IPS network;
5. an alternative mobility network;
6. a representative ground infrastructure;
7. a comparison of ATN/IPS and ATN/OSI performance.

Air navigation service providers do not need to change their systems: in AMEA, the IPS aircraft reaches today's ATN/OSI ground systems through the gateways.

What comes next

• December 2026: initial standardisation and regulatory reports.
• April 2027: intermediate Demonstration Plan.
• September 2027: demonstration requirements.
• Third quarter of 2028 to third quarter of 2029: the seven lab-to-lab exercises.

WP3 prepares the network of tomorrow; Work Package 2 extends today's. Read the WP2 progress update and, for the start of WP3, the WP3 kick-off.

Key terms

• ATN/OSI: the aeronautical telecommunication network in use today for controller–pilot datalink.
• ATN/IPS: its successor, based on the Internet Protocol Suite, with several links and end-to-end security.
• PKI (public key infrastructure): the system that issues, checks and revokes the digital certificates aircraft and ground systems use to prove who they are.
• IPS-OSI gateway: equipment that translates between ATN/IPS and ATN/OSI, so the two networks can work together.
• VDL Mode 2: the ground-based radio datalink used in Europe today.

AMEA is co-funded by the European Union under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF Transport, grant agreement No 101233037), managed by CINEA, and supported by the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking.