System Enhancements for Versatile Electronic Negotiation

NextGen concept for managing en route congestion with dynamic Trajectory-Based Operations

System Enhancements for Versatile Electronic Negotiation (SEVEN) is a NextGen concept for managing en route congestion and enabling National Airspace System (NAS) customers to submit Trajectory Option Sets (TOSs) containing cost weighted sets of alternative trajectory options for their flights. SEVEN provides traffic managers with a tool that algorithmically considers customer trajectory costs, as it assigns reroutes and delays to flights subject to traffic flow constraints. This concept will reduce traffic manager workload and allow more control over traffic in uncertain weather situations. SEVEN also gives NAS customers greater flexibility to operate flights according business priorities, using Trajectory-Based Operations (TBO).

One of the most significant SEVEN benefits is the ability to recapture system capacity, currently lost due to severe weather or other capacity limiting factors. The Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) Future Concepts Team (FCT) evaluated SEVEN through a series of storyboards, simulations utilizing Integrated Simulation Environment (ISE) and Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) exercises with aviation stakeholders, as a part of the Concept Engineering and Development (CED) process.

SEVEN is being deployed externally as Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP). Requirements have been created based on the FCT evaluation and vetted by the CTOP Deployment Team. CTOP introduces the capability to manage multiple Flow Constrained Areas (FCAs) under one Traffic Management Initiative (TMI), resolving capacity/demand imbalances simultaneously for all FCAs in a CTOP TMI.