INFLIGHT CONNECTIVITY (IFC) ANALYSIS TOOLKIT
READY TO JUMP-START YOUR RFP PROCESS?
Need MORE DATA to make decisions, improve tracking, or troubleshoot?
The IFC Analysis Toolkit provides a clear set of features and measurements to monitor and manage the connectivity experience that is being delivered to your passenger. Included you’ll find a suite of easy-to-use documents and a comprehensive Compliance Criteria Matrix to simplify the process of assembling an RFP, comparing responses, and opening discussions with both current and prospective suppliers.
PUBLISHED: JUNE 2022 | 340 Pages | Format: PDF and Excel
FEATURES
- 12 IFC Experience (EXP) documents (340p) outlining service quality measurement criteria
- Compliance Criteria Matrix (500+ criteria) excel spreadsheet for validating suppliers’ conformance
- All licenses include a FREE update to the next document revision
Our guests are returning to our flights with the expectation that they’ll be able to complete the same tasks they do on the ground while in the air.”
– David Scotland, Principal IFEC Product Manager, Alaska Airlines
These are the metrics you should be tracking.
The metrics contained in the IFC Toolkit, in totality, provide a true picture of your passengers’ experience with your IFC system. The IFC Toolkit will help you establish metrics related to application, service, and network performance, in terms of reliability, availability, scalability, speed, accuracy and efficiency.
Track the Passenger Experience from End-to-End
Many IFC system providers track parts of the experience not the end-to-end experience. Individual failure points are often lost in aggregate metrics that measure performance in the broadest sense of the term not knowing if its working or not. To truly measure the quality of experience, you must track every link in the chain from the passenger’s request to the end result they experience.
Rely on Collective Industry Validation
For small airlines, and even big ones, the IFEC manager cannot be expected to know all the intricacies of network design. Even internal network teams find that IFC system challenges are not within their expertise. The IFC Toolkit was built from the ground up based on years of knowledge and experience of airlines and technology experts from across the industry ensuring that we are tracking the right metrics.
The IFC Toolkit enables a
DATA- DRIVEN
approach to measure and ensure IFC Service Quality
INFLIGHT CONNECTIVITY (IFC) ANALYSIS TOOLKIT
PUBLISHED: JUNE 2022 | 340 Pages | Format: PDF and Excel
- PDF outlining each measurement criteria and method for tracking
- Excel Compliance Criteria Matrix for validating suppliers’ conformance
Available Licenses:
Airline: $0 (with free membership)
Non-Airline: Standard $4,795 | Enterprise $8,795
All licenses include a FREE update to the next document revision
Sample Figures
This release is taking a huge step forward. I look forward to IFC vendors’ support of this solution. It will be a game changer for suppliers and their customers.”
– Gordon Shelhon, Sr. Technology Manager at American Airlines
Get the IFC Toolkit Now
- The IFC Toolkit is available for no-charge to current Seamless Air Alliance (SAA) Members. A Vendor who is an existing SAA member can download and immediately begin responding to an RFP.
- Airlines can join as a Member of the Seamless Air Alliance for FREE and gain access to the IFC Toolkit.
- Vendors can join as a Member OR purchase the IFC Toolkit here.
Need More Information?
Please contact us
KEY FEATURES
PUBLISHED: JUNE 2022 | 340 pages | Format: PDF and Excel
The IFC Analysis Toolkit provides a clear set of features and measurements to monitor and manage the connectivity experience that is being delivered to your passenger. Included you’ll find a suite of easy-to-use documents and a comprehensive Compliance Criteria Matrix to simplify the process of assembling an RFP, comparing responses, and opening discussions with both current and prospective suppliers.
Features:
- 12 IFC Experience documents (340p) outlining service quality features and measurement criteria
- Compliance Criteria Matrix (500+ Criteria) checklist for validating suppliers’ conformance
- All licenses include a FREE update to the next document revision
Benefits:
- Defines industry-agreed measures to ensure service quality
- For Airlines:
(1) accelerates the process of assembling and issuing RFP
(2) accelerates the process of reviewing RFP responses
(3) provides a basis to open discussions with both current and prospective suppliers - For Service Providers:
(1) provides a common set of metrics across airlines
(2) prepares a provider for in-depth discussions throughout the RFP process.
Doc: EXP-0 Master IFC Experience (EXP) Program
An informative guide to using the IFC Toolkit and Compliance Criteria Matrix. Provides a summary of each document included in the IFC Toolkit organized by session state and subnetwork, as well as instructions on using the Compliance Criteria Matrix for validating suppliers’ conformance.
Doc: EXP-1 Specific Application Service Quality
Passengers perform a wide variety of tasks using inflight connectivity through multiple applications and functionality within those applications. For example, when selecting a messaging pass, the passenger experience would be based solely on the ability to send and receive messages through the approved messaging application. The performance of any other application the passenger attempts to use would not be considered a factor.
Doc: EXP-2 Measuring Browsing Service Quality
Passengers will attempt to access a wide variety of websites with internet access. Each website has different demands and functionality; a news website may simply display photos and text, whereas Office365 is predicated on the ability to interact and create documents.
Doc: EXP-3 Measuring Streaming Service Quality
Passengers choosing to listen to and/or watch streamed audio or video content have a clear definition of what they consider a quality streaming experience, quick to launch, and clear and continuous playback of their content.
Doc: EXP-4 Measuring Wi-Fi Slice Service Quality
Addresses the need to reliably communicate and transfer data between the onboard Wi-Fi network and a passenger’s device.
Doc: EXP-5 Measuring Backhaul Service Quality
Backhaul involves transmitters on the ground (or in space) establishing, maintaining, and transmitting data to and from aircraft within its range. Connecting data between an aircraft and the ground is challenging. With multiple aircraft sharing the same data connection, the usage of any one aircraft can affect the performance of other aircraft.
Doc: EXP-6 Measuring Portal Service Quality
An inflight webpage, or portal, is used by passengers to connect to the inflight connectivity services offered on their flight. An inflight portal provides airlines with multiple options such as; entertainment content, airline merchandise products, display revenue-generating advertisements, host inflight help resources, and other types of content. The functionality of the portal is critical to delivering the services offered by an airline, and resolving issues encountered by a passenger.
Doc: EXP-7 Measuring User Device Service Quality
Passengers travel with a wide variety of devices, some of which may be incompatible with the inflight connectivity system. Additionally, some applications and software versions may not be permitted for use on the aircraft’s network.
Doc: EXP-8 Measuring Application Service Quality
A passenger’s expectation is to complete the task they set out to do. While the inflight connectivity system provides the necessary internet connectivity, a passenger’s request needs to reach the appropriate application server that can complete the task. An application server is the destination of the passenger’s request and must be reached to get the expected result.
Doc: EXP-9 Measuring Wi-Fi AAA Service Quality
Passenger devices must be approved to connect to the inflight connectivity system, the same as any other Wi-Fi network. If the authentication and authorization approval process (AAA), is not done correctly it can; 1) limit a user’s access to the system, 2) allow malicious devices to connect, 3) inaccurately track devices, and 4) increase the time it takes for the device to connect to the network.
Doc: EXP-10 Measuring Product AAA Service Quality
When passenger devices connect to the Wi-Fi network, there’s an additional authentication process to allow the use of the network to connect to the internet. The authentication and access approval process ensures that; 1) the passenger has properly paid for or been granted free access to the service, 2) the service gets activated and terminated as intended, and 3) the passenger usage is accounted for properly for billing purposes.
Doc: EXP-11 Measuring Platform Service Quality
Inflight connectivity systems are complex and include many physical and software components that can impact a passenger’s ability to use the internet for a period, or throughout an entire flight.
Doc: EXP-12 Quality Control Agents
An onboard agent or “fake user” that regularly performs tests to record the performance of the system. The “fake user’s” experience is not reflective of any specific passenger experience but will provide data to help understand the overall performance of the system and troubleshoot issues.
SPREADSHEET: COMPLIANCE CRITERIA MATRIX
The Compliance Criteria Matrix contains a superset of the features and measures that are outlined in each of the documents of the IFC Toolkit. It is designed to help an airline qualify the level of compliance between vendors during the RFP process or assist in the creation of additional metrics with existing vendors to improve service quality.
The Seamless Air Alliance IFC Analysis Toolkit provides airlines with clear guidelines on the standards of measurements your potential IFC suppliers need to agree to track and report on if they win your business.
– David Scotland, Principal IFE & Connectivity Product Manager, Alaska Airlines
The industry as a whole is making a huge leap forward by adopting the Compliance Criteria Metrics that are defined in the Seamless Air Alliance IFC Analysis Toolkit.
– Gordon Shelhon, Senior Technology Manager, American Airlines
SAA is uniquely positioned to transform the way the Aviation Industry is addressing… SAA Working Groups allow Thales to have genuine exchanges with key players in the IFC Industry to consolidate important positions such as the deployment of Quality of Experience monitoring and reporting.
– Arnaud Tonnerre, VP Technical Director, Thales Group
iDirect is a market leader in aeronautical connectivity, serving a large portion of the mobility market. We really think it’s our responsibility to be part of Seamless Air Alliance and to ensure that that onboard experience exceeds expectations.
– Andrew Faiola, Head of Mobility at ST Engineering/iDirect
As someone that is passionate about IFC and understands first-hand the challenges that airlines and our customers face on a day-to-day basis, participation in this group has been important.
– Mark Cheyney, IFEC Strategy, Performance and Operations Manager
IAG Loyalty
As a former employee at both an airline and a connectivity provider, I have experienced the challenges involved with providing a reliable connectivity experience to passengers.
– Brian Kirby, Senior Technical Product Manager, Telesat
The work we have carried out at Seamless Air Alliance is a massive step forward for the industry. Being able to be part of this process is huge.
– George Nicola, Aero UT Product Delivery Manager, OneWeb
The need to enhance the customer experience through effective QoS and QoE management is what I’m most interested in with the Seamless Air Alliance.
– Eric Li, Senior Principal VSAT Systems Engineer, Intelsat
I believe the work Seamless Air Alliance is doing is going to lead to the creation of a solid standard that is going to be followed by the key players in the industry.
– Alejandro Wainshtok, Senior Product Architect, SES Networks
Membership of the Seamless Air Alliance gives Vodafone the opportunity to contribute in the ground-breaking standardization work that the Alliance is developing.
– Sherif Bakir, CEO of Vodafone Roaming Services
While myself and Kontron are newer members of the SAA, we look forward to supporting the continuously evolving inflight connectivity sector of our industry. We are excited about the opportunities to work alongside partners in the alliance.
– Yves Beaumont, Product Manager, Kontron
WHY BUY?
These are the metrics you should be tracking. The metrics contained in the IFC Toolkit, in totality, provide a true picture of your passengers’ experience with your IFC system. The IFC Toolkit will help you establish metrics related to application, service, and network performance, in terms of reliability, availability, scalability, speed, accuracy and efficiency.
Track the Passenger Experience from End-to-End. Many IFC system providers track parts of the experience not the end-to-end experience. Individual failure points are often lost in aggregate metrics that measure performance in the broadest sense of the term not knowing if its working or not. To truly measure the quality of experience, you must track every link in the chain from the passenger’s request to the end result they experience.
Rely on Collective Industry Validation. For small airlines, and even big ones, the IFEC manager cannot be expected to know all the intricacies of network design. Even internal network teams find that IFC system challenges are not within their expertise. The IFC Toolkit was built from the ground up based on years of knowledge and experience of airlines and technology experts from across the industry ensuring that we are tracking the right metrics.
WHY JOIN?
- Get the IFC Toolkit for FREE.
- Get access to ALL Seamless Air Alliance release documents including:
Seamless Rel-1 (SR1) was completed in January 2020 and established the world’s first Modular Platform for Inflight Connectivity. SR1 breaks down inflight connectivity systems to provide specifications for individual functional components and defines a standardized system architecture. This provides the ability to integrate, deploy and operate inflight connectivity networks using modular components, subsystems and software sourced from multiple suppliers, connected over open interfaces.
Seamless Rel-2 (SR2) was completed in October 2020 and defined System Wide Information Management (SWIM). SWIM specifies the source of data elements between modular components. OpenIFC enables components to discover routes and receive information in a plug-and-play manner. SWIM provides the ability to integrate, deploy and operate infight connectivity (IFC) networks using functional components sourced from multiple suppliers, connected through managed and secure interfaces.
Seamless Rel-3 (SR3) was completed in September 2021 and defined Measuring and Managing the IFC Experience (IFC EXP). Quality of Service (QoS), Quality of Experience (QoE) and User measures and features are defined. The IFC transfer function provides for adjusting network resources as a function of IFC EXP feedback. IFC EXP nodes were defined for onboard, Backhaul and HSP positions. Turbo mode provides a mapping of user-specific data rates to backhaul committed information rates and maximum information rates. - Join any of the 7 (current as of June 2022) SAA Working Groups:
Architecture and Interoperability (ARCH) How do we help airlines unbundle SATCOM systems of the past, move toward common components, and standardized install? This group will revisit the previous interoperability work completed with an eye toward reducing the long-term vision into a first set of steps that is practical for the industry to embrace and commercialize.
CO-CHAIRS
• Arnaud Mestrallet, End to End Connectivity Architect Airbus Commercial, AIRBUS SAS
• Bryan K. Wiltse, Cabin Systems – Feature Strategy, The Boeing Company
Quality of Experience (QoE) This group will focus on measuring quality of internet access. • • Specific compliance criteria will be selected and measured.
CHAIR
• Arnaud Tonnerre, VP, Technical Director, Thales Group
Quality of Service (QoS) This group will focus on measuring the quality of Wi-Fi, Backhaul, and the overall platform. Specific compliance criteria will be selected and measured.
CHAIR
• Brian Kirby, Senior Technical Product Manager, Telesat
IFC Experience (EXP) This group will focus on EXP 0 and the IFC toolkit as a whole. This will include managing releases and working with other parties interested or involved in levying requirements or providing measurement tools to measure compliance criteria performance.
CHAIR
• David Scotland, Principal IFE & Connectivity Product Manager, Alaska Airlines
Personalization (PERS) This group will will promote the personalization concepts with Anonymous Profile from SR4 into some real-world engagements.
CHAIR
• Mark Cheyney, IFEC Strategy, Performance and Operations Manager, IAG Loyalty
Hosted Platforms (HOST) This group will be looking at virtual machines and container approaches to generic edge computing platforms.
CHAIR
• Yves Beaumont, Product Line Manager, North America, Kontron
Standards (STDS) This group will engage with other standards groups and industries related to IFC.
CHAIR
• Anthony Pizzuto, Industry Manager, Vodafone Roaming Services - Work alongside other IFC industry professionals to influence current and future Seamless Air Alliance Work Items and Releases.
Inflight Connectivity (IFC) Analysis Toolkit
Published: June 2022
AIRLINE: $0
(with free membership)
Inflight Connectivity (IFC) Analysis Toolkit
Published: June 2022
NON-AIRLINE: $4,795
Standard License
Single User
