...the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to efficiently share mission-critical information across its operations. The award, made under the scope of the existing FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) contract, is valued at $63 million over FTI’s remaining five-year period of performance. The National Air Space (NAS) Enterprise Messaging Service (NEMS) will serve as a network-centric distribution technology for a variety of data, including flight planning, traffic flow management, surface radar, and weather information.

The NEMS solution provides the Systems Wide Information Management (SWIM) program with a set of services that use the Harris-managed FTI and the Harris-designed Data Exchange (DEX) platform—leveraging the agency’s investment in a network that already provides voice, data and video communications for nearly 50,000 FAA employees at 4,300 locations.

“NEMS increases common situational awareness and improves agility within the NAS,” said John O’Sullivan, vice president, Mission Critical Networks, Harris Government Communications Systems. “It empowers the FAA to use the infrastructure as a service, providing the flexibility to order only those services most important to the user community.”

Harris also supports other mission-critical FAA programs, including:

• The Weather and Radar Processor which provides weather processing dissemination and display capabilities to air traffic controllers in the en-route air traffic control environment • OASIS, which provides integrated weather briefing and flight planning capabilities for preflight weather briefings and in-flight updates in a managed service model • The NAS Voice System, which provides a secure, IP-based voice network for critical communications between air traffic controllers, pilots and ground personnel nationwide • The Alaskan Satellite Telecommunications Infrastructure program, which provides voice and data communications between the Alaskan Air Route Traffic Control Center in Anchorage and 64 regional FAA sites

Additionally, Harris Corporation is introducing its Liberty-Radio Control Equipment (RCE), a flexible gateway product that provides...

...aviation authorities with the next generation of integrated radio control, network routing, and circuit adaptation solutions. Capable of emulating any radio link and broadcasting it over a variety of transmission mediums, the Liberty-RCE will enable communications in harsh conditions and in isolated environments where digital service is typically scarce and reliance on legacy links and older analog technology is still required. The Liberty-RCE is capable of totally reshaping a network and offers unparalleled flexibility, allowing fluctuations in network traffic and demands on operations to be easily managed. The system allows for the operation and compression of up to six radios per chassis into a single 64kbps link. The Liberty-RCE supports Split Site Operations as well as Dual Control Site Operations whereby frequencies from two voice communication control system (VCCS) sites (local or remote) can simultaneously access the same radio resources.

A commercial-off-the-shelf device, the Liberty-RCE was specifically engineered to multiplex voice and data signals transmitted between air traffic control (ATC) facilities and deployed radios over satellite, traditional telecommunications links, or newer topologies such as Internet Protocol (IP). The Liberty-RCE will facilitate the transmission of data services including SATCOM, digital voice, legacy analog voice, datalink, ADS-B, TIS-B, FIS-B, and is interoperable with any brand of VCCS or ATC radio.

In furtherance of Harris' ATC technology, the company has also completed installation, training and Site Acceptance Testing for its...

...air traffic control system (ATC) installed at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Indonesia. Harris supplied its Liberty-STAR™ Voice Communication and Control System (VCCS) to the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali and the Sepinggan International Airport in Balikpapan. Liberty-STAR™ VCCS features a modular architecture, open-platform software and commercial-off-the-shelf hardware that delivers a reliable, scalable communications solution for ATC towers, airline and area control dispatch, flight service stations, and mobile shelters.