Airservices Australia Commissions FREQUENTIS Communication and Tower Control System at Australia’s Busiest Tower

In 2013 Airservices Australia contracted Frequentis to replace its communication and tower control and monitoring system at Sydney Tower. The main objective was to replace these systems in this complex airport environment within a challenging timeframe of 12 months. After factory acceptance in April 2014 and site acceptance in June 2014, the new platform went into operation in September 2014, just 12 months after contract award. This quick delivery time was only achievable by using an integrated project team approach: the Airservices Australia and Frequentis project teams worked closely together to achieve the outcomes in the most efficient way and to mitigate project risks early on.

ED-137 VoIP Air Traffic Management technology for Sydney Tower
Frequentis delivered 13 VCS3020X VoIP voice communication system (VCS) operator positions, 8 smartTOOLS tower control and monitoring positions to manage and display critical ATC information, and an iSecCOM disaster recovery system based on a different technology baseline as the main VCS. The solution is based on the ICAO-compliant ED-137 ‘VoIP for ATM’ IP protocol. The solutions were adapted to the specific Sydney tower environment. The Frequentis ATM specialists created customised human machine interfaces in close cooperation with the operational experts of Airservices Australia, helping to optimise operations and enhance safety.

Mark Rodwell, Airservices Executive General Manager Projects and Engineering, comments: “Airservices Australia and Frequentis closely collaborated during the entire project phase, which made it possible to deliver the system in time and to the full satisfaction of our operational and engineering staff. The technology replacement provides greater resilience in our operations at the airport and ensures that we are well positioned to meet the future demands of air traffic growth.”

Hannu Juurakko, Vice President Air Traffic Management Civil at Frequentis, states: “Systems that reach their end of life of type (LOT) pose a hazard to Air Navigation Service Providers worldwide, since unpredictable system failures can occur at any time. Upgrades of systems older than 15 years usually don’t solve this hazard since component ageing affects all parts of the system. Furthermore only state-of-the-art systems enable the use of features and interfaces to improve the operational environment.”

Frequentis CEO Hannes Bardach emphasises: “We are proud that Airservices Australia selected Frequentis VoIP technology to deliver this critical system in this short time. I personally monitored this programme and was amazed by the outstanding engineering capabilities and how the teams followed the critical operational processes for Sydney Tower.”