Airtel ATN's CPDLC test system being used by Naviair, Denmark's ANSP

Airtel ATN, dedicated to the development of communications software for the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN), announces that Naviair, the Danish Air Navigation Services Provider (ANSP) is the latest customer to avail of its Data Link test systems.

Naviair has purchased Airtel ATN’s Air Manual Tool (AMT-ATN) and Ground Validation Suite (GVS) to use as a validation platform as it provides the ability to run acceptance and regression tests. The ANSP will also use the system as part of their training platform. In this scenario, the GVS simulates traffic from one or many aircraft so that Air Traffic Controllers can gain CPDLC experience.

“Airtel ATN and Naviair have also been working together on developing new features for the GVS system,” said David Ryther, Senior Project Manager, Naviair. “These features will enable simulated flights to be spawned from real time live OLDI messages and to be associated with live flight plans for use on the test system. The ability to “shadow” live operations to this degree will provide us with much more authentic data for both validation and training purposes. Furthermore students on the training platform will be able to perform simulated CPDLC exchanges while partly shadowing operations on the online system, making the training much more effective.”

Naviair is a partner in COOPANS (CO-Operation of Air Navigation Service Providers), where their objective, together with their counterparts in Sweden, Ireland, Croatia and Austria, is to upgrade and harmonise the partners’ ATM systems into a single unified system that uses common software and entails harmonised maintenance processes and operational concepts. The COOPANS partners expect to reduce system development costs by 30 per cent compared with the cost each partner would incur if it had to develop the technology independently. The Irish Aviation Authority has been an Airtel ATN customer since early last year.

“Naviair is responsible for air traffic in Greenland and Faroe Islands as well as Danish airports including Copenhagen, Roskilde, Billund and Århus,” said Frank O’Connor, CEO, Airtel ATN. “The ANSP has always been a leader using the best and most efficient IT and electronic services and equipment available. The new “shadowing” feature which is being created in conjunction with Naviair employees at their request, supports their vision of being and staying a leader in the field.”