Chapter 6. En Route Operations and Services

Section 10. En Route Data Communications

6-10-1. CONTROLLER PILOT DATA LINK COMMUNICATIONS (CPDLC)

All ARTCC ATMs must ensure that the following requirements are incorporated into facility documents, as appropriate, prior to the operational use of CPDLC.

CPDLC shutdowns must be coordinated with all affected personnel and users unless operational conditions require an emergency shutdown of the service.
1. The Operations Manager‐in‐Charge (OMIC) must coordinate with each area to ensure controllers stop using CPDLC.
2. Controllers must use voice to broadcast a message alerting pilots to the shutdown.
  NOTE-
  
  A NOTAM may be issued for a longer‐term outage.
3. Controllers must take action to ensure that any open or abnormally closed uplinks at the time of the shutdown will be resolved, by voice, with each aircraft.
A record of the operational status of CPDLC and its components must be maintained to include system on/off status, initial contact (IC) on/off status, service provider outages, service volume antenna outages, and other pertinent information.
Ensure Operations Supervisor (OS) and Controllers‐in‐Charge (CIC) brief the operational status of CPDLC and its components when relieved of position.
Establish procedures to update the frequency management tables to accurately reflect current frequency assignments.
NOTE-

Frequency management tables are used by the CPDLC system to determine the proper radio frequency to use when sending a transfer of communication (TOC) uplink to an aircraft.
Establish procedures to coordinate any changes to frequency management tables that will impact adjacent facilities.
NOTE-
1. When a frequency is out of service, any adjacent ARTCC that might use that frequency in a TOC uplink has to be informed so its frequency management tables can be updated.
2. Prior to CPDLC implementation, sector combinations and frequency assignments were normally coordinated across facility boundaries between controllers at the operational positions. With the implementation of CPDLC, controllers should forward that information to the OS/CIC on duty so that the frequency management tables can be updated.
Blocked List Procedures
1. Contact ZTL or ZLC flight data unit to manually have an aircraft added or removed from the Blocked List.
2. When aircraft are automatically added to the blocked list by the system, for reasons other than excessive logons, flight data personnel at ZTL and ZLC are directed to remove them from the blocked list manually.
  NOTE-
  
  Aircraft that are added to the blocked list for excessive logons will not be automatically removed from the blocked list by flight data personnel at ZTL and ZLC.
Technical Operations (TO) personnel must be notified when an outage or problem occurs with any element of the Terminal Data Link System (TDLS).