Page 24 - AAA MAY - JUNE 2018 Online Magazine

TRAVELING

TOWARD

THE

FUTURE

The air transport industry
is replacing obsolete
time-division multiplexing
telephony with IP technology

Jay Menon
using VoIP technology, organizations software-based concept ensures
are upgrading infrastructure, improv- flexibility and its ability to simplify
s part of their efforts to lower ing interoperability, and significantly even the most complex of require-
their communication costs, reducing costs. ments. The integrated documentation
major airports worldwide “The air transport industry system records all available infor-
Aare moving to IP-based net- (ATI) is quickly replacing mation, which is an indispensable
works. The transition will take some obsolete time-division prerequisite for control centres.
time since many airports still rely multiplexing (TDM) telephony “The fully redundant and VoIP-
on aging analogue communications with IP technology to reduce based voice communication system
circuits with plain old telephone sys- maintenance costs and ASGARD provides professional
tems (POT) to enable mission-critical increase competitiveness. communication management for
communications via airport traffic IP technology brings huge safety-critical control centres thanks
control towers. Moving to VoIP gives benefits but implementing to its high-level of flexibility, reliabil-
airports access to the latest tech- and managing it poses real ity, and numerous possibilities for
nology to replace the legacy aging challenges,” says SITA. infrastructure integration. We are
telephone equipment with younger extremely proud that industries with
labour teams who are more famil- Early this year, Nuremberg Airport in safety critical tasks rely on ASGARD
iar with current versus out-dated Germany decided to equip its fire bri- for emergency call management,”
devices. gade control centre with Frequentis’ says Reinhard Grimm, Managing
Adopting voice over Internet voice communication solution Director Frequentis Germany.
Protocol (VoIP) technology can ASGARD. Flughaft Nürnberg GmbH ASGARD is already part of more than
deliver the functionality to power a has selected Frequentis’ ASGARD to 30 control centres across Germany,
virtual call centre, as evidenced in modernise the control centre of the supporting emergency service con-
the airline industry. The advantages airports fire department and the con- trol centres with emergency call
are numerous as there are less hard trol and communication management handling and emergency vehicle
costs outlay for equipment, and the system, as well as the installation of coordination. Last year, Rohde &
labour force no longer has be housed media technology. This installation Schwarz was selected by British
in a oversized physical call centre. will mark the first time ASGARD will air traffic service provider NATS to
VoIP is inevitably going to benefit be used in an international airport. supply and install the R&S VCS-4G
the airline industry in ways out-dated Albrecht Dürer airport in voice communications system for
communications couldn’t compare. Nuremberg ranks among the ten the London City Airport digital tower
Convergence of voice and data into biggest airports in Germany with project. The fully IP-based R&S
a common infrastructure for wiring, approximately 4.2 million passengers VCS-4G system has been installed
routers, network connectivity and per year and is growing at a yearly at Swanwick control centre as part
others are only going to improve over rate of 3 per cent. Various subsys- of the digital tower operations project
time and continue to enhance tele- tems will also be integrated into the which is due to go into operation in
phony capabilities across industries communication system via different 2019.
and organizations. Airlines, Airports interfaces. The system design offers Rohde & Schwarz have been
and Air Traffic Controllers are no the highest reliability and availability working in partnership with NATS
exception. With the ability to deploy, and allows for seamless integration to get the VCS systems installed at
manage and maintain one network to into existing but also future infra- Swanwick area control centre (ACC)
serve all their communications needs structures. Its modular, completely in the new designated London City

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