Morocco’s national airports authority relies on VoIP infrastructure from Rohde & Schwarz

Rohde & Schwarz delivered a state-of-the-art media gateway solution to Morocco’s national airports authority (Office National des Aéroports, ONDA). It interconnects all national airports in Morocco via a EUROCAE ED-137 compliant voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure.

As ordered by ONDA, Morocco’s national airport authority, new Rohde & Schwarz media gateways for air traffic control (ATC) were delivered, installed, tested and accepted at all 23 national airports in Morocco. The project was carried out by Rohde & Schwarz Topex SA, a Rohde & Schwarz subsidiary specializing in the development and implementation of ATC solutions.

The new media gateways make it possible to interconnect all voice communications systems (VCS) throughout the country via ONDA’s own IP network. The gateways convert analog signals to EUROCAE ED-137 compliant VoIP data. This capability is required at airports that employ legacy VCSs. Existing state-of-the-art IP-based VCSs such as the Rohde & Schwarz R&S VCS 4G at Agadir Al Massira Airport are directly connected to the IP infrastructure without any gateway. This forward-looking concept allows ONDA to benefit from the advantages of a fully IP-based backbone network now, while migrating step-by-step from legacy to fully IP-based VCSs in the coming years. The new media gateways were implemented as a future-oriented solution and a safe investment for the further development and enhancement of the ATC infrastructure. Rohde & Schwarz successfully combined VCSs from different manufactures into one integrated solution, making ONDA’s ATC communications independent from any legacy, TDM based backbone network. The Rohde & Schwarz solution has been in operation for several months. It provides reliable, secure and high-quality VoIP communications throughout the country.

VoIP in line with EUROCAE ED-137 has established itself as the communications technology of choice in ATC, replacing TDM based systems. The fully IP based R&S VCS 4G voice communications system complies with this standard. The R&S VCS 4G uses a redundant design with numerous interfaces to external systems such as voice recording equipment and telephone lines. Due to its unique architecture, the system is highly scalable and can be easily expanded without replacing existing equipment. The R&S VCS-4G has been designed to meet next generation ATC requirements such as asset sharing, facility consolidation, geographical distribution, virtual center and remote tower, thereby providing effective support for the efficiency and safety objectives relevant in global aviation.

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