Voice communications systems for virtual and remote towers
As large airports and international hubs continue to grow, providing optimized air traffic control services from the existing tower facility may be a challenge, since it might be too small for the number of controllers needed or no longer provide the best overview of all runways and aprons due to the airport's expansion. On the other hand, at small airports it may prove difficult to remain cost efficient, since their low flight volumes usually do not justify running full air traffic control services from the on-site tower.
A solution to these challenges is digitizing air traffic control functions, such as optical, voice and data communications, and providing it either from a digital/virtual tower somewhere else in the airport or from a remote tower/center at a completely different location via a high-speed IP network. High-resolution cameras installed at masts along the runway or apron provide instant visuals of the situation and the IP based CERTIUM® VCS dynamically connects to air-to-ground and ground-to-ground communications resources at the airport.
Thanks to its fully IP based system architecture, scalability and distributed infrastructure, CERTIUM® VCS is ideal for remote air traffic control tower applications and integrates seamlessly with CERTIUM® RADIOS. Synergy effects for procurement, operation and maintenance can be achieved because the same IP infrastructure can be used simultaneously for a large number of applications, including voice, video and weather.