IRIS SatCom Datalink, Road to Commercial Operation

07/03/2024

Iris has been developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) to enable real-time collaboration between pilots, air traffic controllers and an airline’s operation center using cost-effective, secure and highly resilient datalink communications.
The Iris Satellite Communication (SatCom) Programme is a complementary technology to improve datalink Quality of Service and performances to meet the 2030’s needs and implement ADS-C EPP in compliance with the upcoming CP1 regulation, supporting ATM digitalization and decarbonization. It utilizes a multi-link solution to improve the existing infrastructure’s performance, capacity, safety, security, coverage and resilience. It will enable the development of new usages and enhanced services such as trajectory-based operations and will support the practice of datalink in lower airspace and oceanic areas.
Based on the Inmarsat SwiftBroadband-Safety (SB-S) operational infrastructure, ESSP is currently implementing the service provision in the ESA IRIS IOC Phase 3. This service and its performance are based on an available and mature technology which will be presented this autumn 2023 through pre-commercial flights supporting the certification of the service.
By the end of 2023, the IRIS service will be available to pave the way to the user adoption as part of the evolution of the European Datalink service provision context.