ABSTRACT: Similar to how the adoption of Internet and Web-based technologies have pushed electronic commerce and on-line business-to-business transactions into the mainstream of the global economy, the aviation community has adopted a network-centric approach to communication, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management. At the core of this effort is the 2025 Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Concept of Operations. NextGen is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities in recent history to advance the art and science of Air Traffic Control. The fundamental tenet of this National Vision for Air Transportation is “Network-Enabled Information Access" - the ability to publish and subscribe data and services to known and unanticipated authorized users. In this future environment, the speed, efficiency and quality of decision-making will be improved and distributed appropriately in any mode of operation (routine, abnormal or crisis) by making information available, secure and usable in real-time according to defined “communities of interest". However, there are significant barriers to interoperability and integration among heterogeneous organizations, missions, systems and applications that must be overcome in order for the envisioned NextGen to become reality. One strategy is to de-couple data from the underlying business logic and user interfaces to enable synchronization, replication, and establish a federation of data and services. This paper, “A Data Strategy for Network- Enabled Operations", presents an Open Architecture approach that relies on de-facto and next-generation Internet technologies such as: eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL), to allow communication, interaction and Network Enabled Operations to occur in a more intelligent and standards-based manner.

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