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Harris Completes Transition of FAA Bulk Weather Telecommunications Gateway to the FTI Network |
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MELBOURNE, Fla., June 22, 2006/Satnews Daily/ — Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) said it has completed the transition of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Bulk Weather Telecommunications Gateway service to the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) network.
The transition moves the FAA's legacy satellite network for weather services to FTI - the safest and most secure network operating within the civil sector of the U.S. government, Harris said. The legacy service had consumed the most bandwidth of any of the FAA's satellite network users and its transition to the more efficient FTI network will result in substantial cost savings to the FAA.
“This is a significant milestone that enables the FAA to downsize its costly satellite communications infrastructure and save millions of dollars,” said John O'Sullivan, FTI program vice president for the Harris Government Communications Systems Division. “Having a continuously updated, common picture of the weather throughout the National Airspace System is critical to the safe and efficient flow of air traffic. This transition moves the large- bandwidth Gateway from a satellite to a terrestrial network that is much smaller and cost-effective, while maintaining the same functionality.”
The Gateway now broadcasts weather data from the FAA's Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, to 20 Air Route Traffic Control Centers across the U.S. and the William J. Hughes Technical Center in New Jersey, utilizing the highly secure, high-availability FTI Internet Protocol over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (IP over ATM) network backbone. Harris collaborated with Cisco Systems to develop Circuit Emulation over IP, a new technology that encapsulates the proprietary FAA Gateway protocol into IP packets and enables the FAA to transition many of its legacy systems over a homogeneous IP network infrastructure.
During the 15-year FTI program, Harris is upgrading and improving telecommunications and operations functions at more than 4,400 FAA facilities nationwide, providing the FAA with a safer, more efficient network that is expected to save more than $600 million in operating costs over the life of the program. FTI equipment has now been installed and accepted at more than 1,500 FAA facilities, and nearly 6,000 operational services have been accepted and are in service nationwide. Transition from the major legacy services, which are more costly, to the FTI network, is expected to be completed by December 2007.
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