The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) reported that a new air traffic services (ATS) interconnection has strengthened the exchange of information between centres in Europe and South America.
The solution will safeguard the transmission of critical data, such as information contained in flight plans and weather forecasts for a given route.
See also: Indra to deploy centralised air traffic control system in India
New ATS Message Handling Service Protocol
A new ATS Message Handling Service (AMHS) Protocol for the transfer of messages between the Madrid and Caracas communication centres came into operation on 23 February. This was done in the context of ICAO’s REDDIG (Red Digital de la Región Sudamericana) programme, which is headquartered in Lima, Peru.
REDDIG is a fully meshed Internet Protocol (IP) network, which constitutes the regional segment of the global Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN) and provides the necessary platform to carry out all communications required for the provision of air navigation services.
As such, the project includes the management of scheduling, finances and contracts with service providers (such as satellite or terrestrial communications), as well as the provision of ongoing technical support and network administration.
“This long-awaited interconnection was concluded thanks to the recent installation of the REDDIG Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) node in Madrid last December”, said Fabio Rabbani, ICAO Regional Director for South America. He also stressed that it represents “a tremendous step forward” in the implementation of ICAO’s Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP).
The successful implementation will serve as a basis for advancing the future implementation of similar solutions in Panama City and Johannesburg, currently under development.
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