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“Sir I cannot hear you” – Air Traffic Management Out of Control?
The Problem
Unless you have been hibernating, you have heard about the recent voice communications outages in our multiple Air Traffic Control centers. You remember voice communications, don’t you? Invented in the 19th century and eulogized many times as shinier objects take center stage, voice is a critical means of communication especially in the financial industry and in command and control. While E911 and other services evolve to include SMS, video, and other features, connecting to a human being on a reliable system that is clear, simple to use, and recorded for compliance is still the foundation of critical communication.
So then why is century old technology failing so often and putting people lives in danger? Voice is looked down upon by today’s technology elite. It does not attract investment. No one wants to make hardware. Everything has migrated to the cloud. While these may not be negative developments, there are legacy systems that are no longer supported that are aging and may not be easily migrated to the cloud. Voice system manufacturers are abandoning their embedded base every day and summarily ending product lines with little to no warning. Some will argue that we took a very simple technology, analog voice, and made it extremely complex with VOIP and its many considerations. Yes, it reduced the costs for consumer and general business, however for critical communications, it reduced the number of vendors and the market size for those vendors thus driving up the price. Government specifications can be complex, and those requirements may not exist in this APP culture and thus drive higher cost customized solutions where once the same PBX provided overlays for every market segment.
So how do all those issues manifest to create the crisis we have seen unfold over the last few weeks? Some level of government issues a Request for Proposal (RFP) that requires technologies and methods that may no longer be available and have to be created for modern platforms. Government bids can take years to create, garner responses, decide, procure, and implement. Many large governmental contractors and integrators take the approach to bid low and make more money in change orders. This drives up costs and elongates the time for deployment, often by years. Antiquated legacy systems must now survive even longer, may not be properly supported, and have contracted service providers scouring online auction sites for spare parts. Add to that the reduction in qualified staffing for cost savings, and it can culminate in a perfect storm of 90-second service failures to critical voice infrastructure at Air Traffic Control towers.
The Solution
The technology problem is not difficult to solve. However, the implementation is often likened to repairing the engine on an airplane in mid-flight. The legacy system should remain untouched. Its delicate status combined with the need for it to operate in a critical environment means high risk to any well-intentioned interim repair. The new system is not production ready and must be extensively tested so as not to introduce new issues. What can be done is to introduce an interim parallel system that leverages the reliable portions of the old solution and provides an alternative that is always available. Bridging the past, the present and the future is the sweet spot for some vendors. Technologies such as gateways, and protocol conversion can provide that evolutionary step from the legacy world to the new world on an interim basis without migrating the entire solution. By inserting these technologies and integrating them via a standards-based API, business continuity is achieved while disaster recovery efforts are conducted in parallel. Properly handled, it can be transparent to the user.
We must rely on publicly available information and make some assumptions. The first assumption is that the failure was only at the voice system. Secondly, we can assume that radar, geospatial data, and the integration of that data to air traffic control center operational systems – all continued to perform. Third, we can assume that the VHF radio network was up and reliably running. Finally, we can assume that the same radar and geospatial data can be presented to another system. Detection of a failure may also be possible which could trigger an automated switch over to the interim system. Or you can simply put a backup device on each desktop. The best backup is one that is always available and requires no intervention.
By taking that same data and matching it to the aircraft identification and geospatial coordinates, a new system can transfer that call to a specific controller in a specific region. A new conference is then created between the aircraft and the controller. It can be handed off as the location changes to a new center, and integrated chat/IM/SMS/Email or any other alert can be triggered and every event logged as desired. A simple example of this is E911 where your phone number is looked up in a database and an address is matched and overlayed on a map and is instantly presented to the E911 operator, then to police, fire, or emergency service dispatching.
If the controller is connected to the new bridge, and the new bridge is connected to the legacy voice service and the VHF radio via Radio Over Internet Protocol (ROIP) Gateways, then a failure of the old system will never even be noticed. Or both systems can exist in parallel. It can work either way, whichever is the best operational fit for the circumstances.
Conclusion
Although this may seem oversimplified, the concept is sound. The variable is a vendor. When you require a partner with extensive aviation emergency experience, who has had thousands of ports in service spanning multiple years without a single failure you turn to XOP Networks. XOP Networks has been providing RFCS (Ringdown Firebar Conferencing Service) to global airports both civilian and military (including the US DoD) for decades, allowing them to achieve FAA regulatory compliance. Their Universal Services Node (USN) provides Mass Notification to municipalities and schools, provides Command and Control conferencing during rocket launches and provides secure trader voice services to financial institutions on Wall Street. Their REST API allows for the integration of 3rd party software and data for additional features and functionality and enhancements to services outlined above. It can operate in a highly available configuration in the cloud, on servers in a datacenter, or a hybrid configuration. It can integrate with existing directories and identity systems, and integrates with recorders, transcribers, and analytic systems.
So why hasn’t a similar solution been put in place yet? Great question. Anyone who is interested can contact XOP at (972) 590-0200, at sales@xopnetworks.com, or at our website at https://www.xopnetworks.com/. XOP Networks, an American company, located in Dallas Texas, and ready to roll up their sleeves and help solve this problem, and already has an extensive track record of helping to keep passengers safe in an emergency.
Bill Wagner is a financial industry technology consultant with over 30 years’ experience as an industry executive in hardware, software, engineering, operations, R&D, product development and introduction, and strategic development.
ROIP Gateways: The Trusted Airport ‘Crashphone’ System and Its Capabilities Beyond
The Problem
Communicating over a distance has always presented a challenge to humans. From signal mirrors, semaphore flags, and satellites, people have leveraged technology to overcome communications challenges. In my Army days I had radio relay system in my vehicle that took up half the space, so that I could extend the reach of battlefield commanders to their resources. Today, we take speed, availability, and distance for granted with such innovations as cellular telephony, and Starlink. However, in a mission critical environment such as Command and Control (C2), this presents a unique challenge. The communication must be instant, reliable, and able to reach the responders regardless of where they are and what they may be using for communications. Add to that the need for immediate access to decision makers and experts, and the complications begin to pile up.
How does a dispatcher in an emergency center served via the cloud not only reach their field assets, but the experts and leaders necessary to coordinate a unified response? That dispatcher may be on a console with a Radio over IP (ROIP) interface while the field assets may be on push to talk (PTT) radios, and the experts and leaders who may be travelling and on a cell phone or in conference room located far away in a municipal capital. How does an IT manager securely integrate, provide universal and secure remote access, and archive it for later analysis and compliance? C2 is estimated to be a $45 Billion market with a 6.6 CAGR by 2029. So, solving these problems is not only critical for emergency preparedness, but is a lucrative market for potential vendors.
The Solution
Mass notification services have become standard fare for municipal communications. With one call civic leaders can reach all their residents without sirens or public address systems. These can be further integrated with SMS to send the same message via text messaging, email, or other forms of media. In airports, these systems are used as ‘crash phones’ to bring all the airport emergency services and management together on one system rapidly, securely, and independently of the device they use for communicating. This same concept that has served airport management for years will work in other C2 use cases as well.
Imagine the first responder on the scene on a handheld radio, their supervisor enroute in a vehicle, the dispatcher at a console in a command bunker, and emergency management resources in a conference room, or in transit. You need one system capable of bringing all of them together. Specifically radio, VOIP telephony, cellular telephony, collaboration and conferencing services, and their underlying infrastructure. To do this you need a common denominator – SIP. XOP Networks provides the pieces required to integrate this secure, reliable, universal service. Their services can be deployed in a highly available manner, using data centers, cloud, premises based, or in a hybrid model.
Starting at the edge, XOP provides a ROIP gateway that can be deployed on a processor in your existing routers, or in a separate dedicated unit or units in a diverse, redundant fashion. They also provide the Universal Service Node (USN) which can convert and bridge any protocol into one conferencing system which supports voice, video, chat, screen sharing, document sharing and does so securely and privately on a platform dedicated to your requirements. XOP also provides device independent access to the USN, so users can dial in from a satellite phone, cell phone, VOIP phone, collaboration system, or use any device with a browser to access the conference. Through its robust API, XOP provides a variety of recording, AI, and other interfaces and integrations to comply with recording regulations and all 3rd party applications and partners with the best of breed MSPs and manufacturers should their customers desire one stop shopping. XOP has even developed custom software and designed CPE telephone stations to meet specific customer requirements. And of course, they provide professional services to manage your project from start to finish and maintain it for the life of the system.
Conclusion
As the technology landscape continues to evolve, ROIP will evolve as well. How will technologies such as AI inference and network slicing provide new features and functionality to this market? Will enhanced mobile broadband/massive machine type communications provide large groups of first responders and their support to areas requiring a temporary or even long-term large emergency services presence? Using the airport crash phone example, how does a regional airport scale to support a massive first responder presence if an incident occurs and lasts for extended periods of time? Access is one portion of the solution, but as the access evolves and presents greater numbers of users, you will require a flexible, scalable, proven collaboration system to integrate and efficiently bridge the audio, video, and sharing for any given situation.
No matter what the future may hold, C2 use cases cannot tolerate service interruption as their constituents face potential life or death situations. XOP networks provides these services in a comprehensive solution that ticks the boxes of technology, compliance, procurement, reliability, and performance. They are acutely aware that the acronym CIA (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) is a critical component of any IT policy. Their solutions have been used by users and vendors to provide over 1 million ports of secure services for over 20 years without a millisecond of downtime. These customers and users include service providers, government, financial institutions, the military, first responders and more.
When you select a vendor partner, you choose one based on experience, reliability, performance, and TCO. XOP excels in these areas as is evidenced by their 25-year history in the very demanding C2 and financial sectors. Is your C2 systems integrator an XOP partner? If not, you may want to have them contact us today for a demonstration and discussion of their solutions. As a former XOP customer, I can assure you that after we did, they were deployed in our cloud environment globally. The value was unparalleled, and the decision was easy to make.
Bill Wagner is a command and control, and financial industry technology consultant with over 30 years’ experience as an industry executive in hardware, software, engineering, operations, R&D, product development and introduction, and strategic development.
Providing Solutions in an Emergency: XOP Networks and the Camanche Fire Station
In emergency situations, having a dependable communication system in place is crucial– missing a call could mean someone not receiving vital help when it is needed the most.
David Schutte, Fire Chief of Camanche Fire Station, had been working with the local telephone company for a number of years, using their Tellabs 291 Firebar Conference system.
Schutte was informed by the phone company that they would no longer be able to provide them with the dial out conferencing service (also known as Firebar service) — as Tellabs the manufacturer had stopped manufacturing the Firebar equipment.
As the volunteer fire department relied on this service, Shutte started looking for alternate solutions immediately.
“I did a bit of online research and found that XOP Networks provided what looked to be some feasible solutions,” says Schutte.
Firebar is used to inform and bring a group of first responders into an audio conference very quickly. It has been relied on as a very fast and efficient way of informing and engaging the first responders. XOP Networks provides its Ringdown Firebar Conference Server (RFCS) product to the phone companies which is a functional replacement for Tellabs 291/292 equipment.
Schutte contacted XOP Networks and was pleased to find out that their Firebar solution was more than equivalent to the Tellabs 291 based Firebar service that their local phone company had been providing.
“And from what I could find, there weren’t any other solutions that made sense for us at Camanche,” Schutte explained.
Implementing the service via an easy-to-use web portal was painless and quick, and XOP Networks worked with Schutte to configure his end of things. The Camanche Fire Station has been using the XOP Networks’ Firebar solution for over 3 years now.
“It’s been a pleasure, being a customer of XOP Networks. They’ve given me a solution – one that is cost-effective and efficient and works well for my 35 member volunteer fire department.”
You can listen to a recording from a Camanche Volunteer Fire Department First Response call here.