FREQUENTIS wins IHS Jane’s ATC Technology Award 2017

On 7 March, 2017, the IHS Jane’s ATC award ceremony took place at the 2017 World ATM Congress in Madrid. Companies and projects across six categories were already shortlisted in January, 2017. Frequentis won the Technology Award, reflecting a significant contribution by the equipment and systems supplier, with its next-generation air traffic management network in Brazil, based on Software-Defined Networking.

Winners and shortlisted nominees for the awards have been recognised at a ceremony on 7 March. “We are very proud to win this fantastic award together with our customer, CISCEA (Commission for Implementation of the Brazilian Air Space Control System), and look forward to further implementing future IP-based ATM-grade networks. Thanks to CISCEA for trusting in our capabilities and thanks to IHS Jane’s for recognising this project as an important and outstanding one”, said Hannu Juurakko, Vice President ATM Civil at Frequentis, at the ceremony.

The Brazilian Air Navigation Service Provider, DECEA, is responsible for the control of twenty-two million square kilometres of airspace, which is about twice the size of Europe. In order to support forecasted growth, change was required in its current network infrastructure. To meet the stated customer goals of higher network availability, increased reliability and improved safety, a solution has been created that supports ATM applications such as SWIM (System Wide Information Management) and Software-Defined Networking – allowing flexibility for dynamic resectorisation.

The telecommunications infrastructure in vast areas of Brazil is a challenge, for many sites the last mile can only be established with extraordinary measures and in many cases only VSAT is available. The area is split over several network providers. “One of the current challenges we face related to unstable QoS (Quality of Service) of our telecoms infrastructure is brownout scenarios within the network. By deploying a Frequentis ATM-grade network with software-defined networking capabilities, we hope to substantially improve the way we deal with brownout scenarios in the future, thus achieving high availability and improved safety for our ATM and ATC systems, in a transparent way for final users”, Lieutenant Brigadier Aquino, General Director of DECEA summarised. “We are very proud of winning this award together with Frequentis.”

The ATM-grade network delivered by Frequentis is a hybrid solution using conventional and softwaredefined network (SDN) elements. Providing application-aware network flows and use-case bandwidth optimisations, it converges different types of applications from safety-critical radio communication with administrative data traffic. In order to ensure time synchronised radio communication with high audio quality, ED-137 dynamic delay compensation over IP, VSAT and TDM-based WANs is also a part of the solution. DECEA will experience enhanced flexibility and capacity for Technical and Operational Management of the Brazilian Airspace Control System by implementing a National Network Operations Centre providing agile and secure processes. 

IHS Markit recognised cutting-edge air traffic management (ATM) in the 17th annual Jane’s ATC Awards, held on 7 March 2017 during World ATM Congress in Madrid. “Collaboration, innovation and sustainability remain the watchwords for the ATM community”, said Ben Vogel, editor of Jane’s Airport Review. “The air transport industry is undergoing rapid change amid constantly rising demand, so it is heartening to see how all the nominees are working to boost capacity, efficiency, and safety.”