Media

24^th June 2015: The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has today commenced operations with the Rohde & Schwarz VCS-4G Voice Communications Control System (VCCS), which will enable the IAA and ISAVIA to become the World’s first “cross border” Aeronautical Communications Centre.

The VCCS is located at the Irish Aviation Authority’s North Atlantic Communications facility. ISAVIA has an identical VCCS at its communication facility at Gufunes, Iceland, which will enable both individual units to operate as one Virtual Centre.

The system will be used to provide aeronautical communications services, using High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF) and SATVOICE operations on up to 30 separate receivers in the Shanwick and the Reykjavik Oceanic Control areas under joint operations with ISAVIA’s “Iceland Radio”.

The concept of a Virtual Center allows both VCCSs to be operated either independently in stand-alone mode or, when connected, in joint-operation mode. This will give operational staff access to all resources and functionality of either VCCS.

Peter Kearney, IAA Director of ATM Operations and Strategy said “We are delighted to be the first in the World to introduce this along with our partners in Iceland. The IAA continuously strives to introduce innovative ATM solutions which provide enhanced services to our customers and increases safety in our business. The Virtual Centre concept will ensure business continuity by reassigning resources and supporting infrastructure in the event of a catastrophic facility failure either at Ballygirreen, Ireland or Gufunes, Iceland. This communications switch will also provide the necessary infrastructure to grow our business”.

Voice over IP (VoIP), in line with EUROCAE ED-137, is the latest communications technology for global air traffic management, replacing obsolete systems. The fully IP-based Rohde & Schwarz VCS-4G voice communications system fully adheres to this standard.

For media queries, please contact:

Tony Lane

Communications Executive

Irish Aviation Authority

Tel: +353 1 603 1199 

Mob: +353 86 7911864