VCS Remote Management by SITTI

The Italian Air Force (AM – Aeronautica Militare) is more and more progressing in the achievement of their target aiming at centralizing the management of the Voice Communication Systems (VCS) used for the control of the national airspace. This project wants to make it possible to have remote secure access to all facilities from a central location, thus reducing the time needed for acquiring the status of possible malfunctions and the relevant corrective actions.

SITTI is a very long-term supplier to the Air Force and very well knows the network connecting the defence sites and the information they can share with other air traffic control installations. SITTI is therefore in the optimal condition for answering the request coming from the Customer to develop an executive plan for the identification of the services and functions to be made available at each site and the way they can be made accessible.

The Air Force Command requested SITTI to study a possible remote management infrastructure and define the relevant implementation phases, from the definition of the areas of interest up to the identification of the hardware and software modules and components that are required to gradually introduce remote management capabilities with nationwide extension.

The overall plan is divided into 3 major step:

• Remote Surveillance (T1): centralisation of the alarm and status messages related to the working condition of remote components, with the aim of identifying possible problems and coordinate corrective actions.
• Remote Diagnostics (T2): capability of executing remote access and diagnosis, by means of dedicated applications, e.g. monitoring the status of all connections of any kind and the real use of operative frequencies.
• Remote Control (T3): possibility of issuing execution commands to remote facilities and sending reconfiguration patterns to cope with new operational needs, thus dramatically reducing the intervention time, crucial aspect especially in the military field.

The executive plan developed by SITTI has been submitted to the Italian Air Force in all its aspects and got full approval, thus allowing its implementation. Meanwhile, the pilot project has been tested, validated and approved. The new remote management features allow AM to quickly react to all ordinary and extraordinary situations that may occur while controlling the Italian national airspace.