French Overseas territories upgrade aviation message handling with FREQUENTIS Comsoft technology

French air navigation services, DSNA (in French, Direction des Services de la Navigation Aérienne) has selected an aeronautical message handling system (AMHS) from Frequentis Comsoft to enhance its airspace communication capability and fully support the ICAO basic and extended AMHS service profiles.

Frequentis Comsoft’s Aeronautical Integrated Data Exchange Agent – Next Generation (AIDA-NG) was designed in close cooperation with leading air navigation service providers (ANSPs). It is a unified message handling switch enabling the exchange of AFTN, Common ICAO Data Interchange Network (CIDIN), and AMHS messages, based on European ATM Communication Gateway (ECG) software.

DSNA provides air navigation services through seven area control centers (ACCs), five in mainland France and two overseas, in French Polynesia and in French Guiana. The overseas locations of New Caledonia, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and La Réunion, have been equipped with a redundant AIDA-NG and CADAS-ATS air traffic services solution. French Polynesia Tahiti will follow.

AIDA-NG systems have been tested and qualified to switch more than 900 messages per second continuously and is already prepared for all future aeronautical messaging environments. High message loads do not affect the exceptional response time of the management interface. Overload situations are prevented by extensive flow control mechanisms. New Caledonia – Fiji, French Guiana – Caracas/Brasilia AMHS links are in operation.  New AMHS links are planned for French Antigua –Trinidad/Tobago and La Réunion – Madagascar/Maurice.

To meet ICAO Annex 3 recommendations, AMHS connections with Meteorological switches are scheduled to allow for IWXXM data exchanges. CADAS terminals have been used operationally in New Caledonia for air traffic control purposes since 2017, superseding the legacy terminals, and are planned to be deployed in the remaining territories. 

Frequentis and DSNA have been working together for many years, with Frequentis most recently providing its voice communication system, VCS3020X, to the Functional Airspace Block Europe Central (FABEC) project, aiming at replacing the main and back-up VCS in DSNA’s five French ACCs.

“The Frequentis Comsoft AMHS system has now been successfully installed at five locations and will enhance message handling capability for DSNA’s overseas territories, ensuring enhanced communication.”, says Thomas Hoffmann, Frequentis Comsoft Managing Director.