Satellite communications provider Inmarsat has achieved Airbus certification of its SwiftBroadband-Safety (SB-S) service for flight deck communications, culminating seven years of system development and certification. The broadband, Internet Protocol (IP)-based system represents a paradigm shift in satcom safety and efficiency, Inmarsat declared.

“We’re moving from the current, saturated VHF and over-ocean solutions of our prior generation services into the next generation, secure IP cockpit communications,” said Leo Mondale, president of Inmarsat’s aviation business unit. “The gestation period for these solutions is long because of the checks and balances to being a certified safety solution. We’re excited now to be finally bringing it to the market.”

Hosted on Cobham Aviator S series satcom terminals, SB-S will be offered as a line-fit option on A320 and A330 airliners starting in 2018, under Cobham’s contract with Airbus. Inmarsat’s IP-based SwiftBroadband satcom service is already used on widebody airliners that typically operate over oceans as well as on some narrowbodies; the new safety version complies with the latest requirements of civil aviation authorities and air navigation service providers. The so-called “light cockpit” system is “a separate secure IP pipe onto and off of the airplane so there are no security issues” with broadband equipment for cabin communications, Mondale said.

Certification of SB-S on the A320 means the advanced safety system will become commonplace on narrowbody airliners that primarily operate over land and within radar and radio range. “We’ve been a complementary solution, but SwiftBroadband Safety brings better performance, better economics and the same kind of security we’ve been providing for years now; it makes it an option for over-land safety operation services and [eventually] for air traffic management” applications, Mondale said.

SB-S uses Inmarsat’s L-band satellite network and represents an enhanced version of the older Inmarsat Classic Aero service, accommodating Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (Acars) communications by airlines with their aircraft as well as automatic dependent surveillance-contract position reports and data communications with air navigation service providers. Rival satcom provider Iridium boasts coverage over polar regions that Inmarsat’s service cannot reach, but Iridium competes against Acars-based systems whereas SB-S represents the next generation of communications, Mondale contends.

“There are many systems that have cleverly found a way to use that Acars secure technology to do things it was never designed for, but in fact it’s poorly suited to modern digital communications. It’s like doing business by Telex today,” Mondale said. “What SwiftBroadband Safety represents is an upgrade to a secure digital line that has sufficient capacity to do large file transfers and things of that sort…It has virtually 100-percent global coverage except for the extreme latitudes of the poles and bullet-proof availability that is important for the cockpit and less important for the cabin.”

In June 2015, Inmarsat announced that Hawaiian Airlines was the first carrier to fly with SB-S after receiving a supplemental type certificate for the Boeing 767-300. Inmarsat is actively discussing the use of the service with other Boeing operators, Mondale said. “It’s on the same track,” he affirmed. “We expect [SB-S] to be available as a catalog line-fit item on every single Boeing airframe.”