Turkey to transform air traffic services with COMSOFT

After three challenging rounds of intense evaluations Turkish State Airports Administration (Devlet Hava Meydanları İsletmesi –DHMİ) have awarded German expert COMSOFT a contract to replace their existing message handling system, enabling enhanced reliability, performance and functionality for the Turkish ANSP’s COM-centres at Ankara and Istanbul, including 58 airports across the country. 

Turkey has a huge, strategically important airspace, at the cross-roads between Europe, the Middle-East, Africa and Asia and maintains close co-operation with neighbouring states to optimise the performance of Ground-Ground Networks and data exchange. International air traffic to the country has risen by 122 per cent since 2005. To cope with the continuous growth and satisfy capacity needs DHMI chose COMSOFT’s market-leading AMHS solution, AIDA-NG and Aeronautical Data Access System, CADAS to maintain the high-level of air traffic safety paired with increased performance and sustained economic efficiency.

The project, to replace the existing AMHS installed in 2009, will include two AIDA-NG/CADAS systems in Ankara in Air Traffic Control Centre (HTKM) of Turkey – one base operational AFTN/CIDIN/AMHS system and one indıvıdual AFTN/CIDIN/AMHS traınıng system, plusa contingency (AFTN/CIDIN/AMHS disaster recovery) system in Istanbul Atatürk Airport AFTN/AMHS.  The solution will also include the delivery of a huge domestic IP network and security infrastructure connecting 179 CADAS terminals, at 58 remote sites, to cover Turkish territory and connect to the main sites in Ankara and Istanbul. 

COMSOFT’s message switch, AIDA-NG, is the only system on the market, which provides uniform message handling for all types of aeronautical messages such as AFTN/CIDIN, AMHS, OLDI, WMO, XML-based formats (AIXM5.1, FIXM), and fully integrates their processing in one single application. By harmonising the message switching architecture it is possible for the whole system to be managed by one single user interface, which unifies and thus eases the handling of work flows for any message type. 

COMSOFT’s client terminal system CADAS will provide the ATS end users of DHMI with a modern WEB service for the operation of AFTN-based and/or AMHS-UA-based terminals. The service is complemented by a highly sophisticated ATS end user interface for the managing of any ATS message (FPL + associated messages, Flow Control, NOTAMs, MET, others) and respective workflows (IFPS, Proposal, etc.), which is completely independent from the terminal operation mode, AFTN or AMHS UA. 

AIDA-NG and CADAS can manage a practically unlimited number of AFTN and/or AMHS connections and WEB-based subscribers as there is no limit by design, but only by available resources. AIDA-NG provides the highest throughput capabilities with a permanent load of more than 375 messages per second. Thanks to the design improvements and optimised algorithms incorporated by COMSOFT in their standard X.400 product, that extraordinary throughput will not be significantly impacted by the future message length increase.