Integrated Communication Systems for Air Traffic Control and Control Room Management The extremely flexible architecture of SITTI M800IP® MULTIFONO® Voice Communication System (VCS) opens a wide range of applications in the field of the communications for ATM (Air Traffic Management). Among these, the possibility of multiple connections to remote devices based on EUROCAE ED137 VOIP (Voice Over IP) standards is particularly interesting for many reasons. In fact, when radios are installed at a remote site, it is of utmost importance to allow access to them from different VCS systems (resource sharing). This immediately reflects in cost savings for the Customer and more efficient and effective communications. Standard-compliant remote VOIP radios can be directly interfaced to M800IP®, but the overall scenario may be complicated by the fact that remote radios may be old fashioned or from different vendors, and they may not have any standard-compliant IP interface. The solution is called GVS. Remote radios of any kind can be connected to a standard IP network by means of SITTI GVS gateways that take care of all required settings and possible legacy protocols towards the radio themselves and convert data and audio signals into EUROCAE ED137 standard VOIP. Although the primary use of GVS devices is to allow standard interfacing of radios, it can also be used for interfacing any other type of communication means, including telephone, MFC, E1, etc. GVS devices can be seen as simplified versions of the full MULTIFONO® M800IP® system, where specially designed boards act as gateways between local resources on one side and a standard network on the other side. Thanks to the modular way GVS devices have been thought of, their usage may range from very small radio sites to large radio installation sites with tens of co-located radios through a number of possible interfaces (4 wires standard E&M analogue, E1, Nx64, QSIG digital). Connection to the IP WAN network is duplicated for reliability reasons. According to the EUROCAE ED137 standard, GVS devices can be simultaneously accessed by a number of VCS systems, thus guaranteeing access to a multitude of operators at different sites (radio sharing). Since all legacy communications to/from the radio are fully managed by the GVS itself, as well as configuration commands (e.g. frequency change), remote operators have full access to the site resources through the GVS gateway.

Integrated Communication Systems for Air Traffic Control and Control Room Management GVS devices include facilities to automatically look for other radios with the same characteristics in case of failure of the one being used; this automatic search procedure allows VCS operators to continue their work without suffering of service disruption even in case of total radio failure. Best Signal Selection (BSS) and audio compression are standard features provided by GVS devices, in order to reduce the connection bandwidth required. SITTI has already got experience of integrating GVS devices into networks...