ICAO MHS

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ICAO Message Handling System

Based on the ICAO standards Avitech AG offers productsfor data and message communications, which comply with the AFTN, CIDIN and AMHS standards.

Avitech participates in several ICAO bodies and continuously cooperates in working on CNS/ATM concepts and standards. Avitech's Aeronautical Data and Message Switching Systems ensure the latest state-of-the-art system design and functionality.

Because of the modular structure and design of its products, Avitech is able to offer small stand alone solutions or fully integrated systems. The feature list includes:

• International Communication Center with AFTN, CIDIN and ATN/AMHS switching capability
• and interfaces to non-ICAO messaging environments at regional or national level.
• Gateway facilities between AFTN and CIDIN or AMHS.
• Interface to public networks.
• National messaging systems based on TCP/IP communication.
• Redundancy concept based on robust cluster architecture proven in numerous industry applications.
• User terminals for attachment to a variety of messaging environments.

Experience, Technology, Leadership

Avitech's experience in the area of aeronautical data and message switching dates back to the 19 seventies, when their first system went operational. Technology leadership was established in 1992 when the world's first operational CIDIN link was delivered by Avitech. In 1997, Avitech delivered the first operational AMHS application.

Use of standards

The communications products are implemented on commercial off-the-shelf platforms and make use of standardized software and interfaces. This allows the integration of components from multiple vendors for optimized system solutions in order to take advantage of technological innovations and competitive prices.

AFTN Component

• Routing and relay with multiple addressee indicators
• Processing of ITA-2 and IA-5 message formats
• Supervision of message traffic
• Short-term/Long-term retention of messages
• Overflow handling with operator control capability

CIDIN Component

• Entry/Exit/Relay functions
• Application entity for AFTN-formatted messages
• Application entity CIDIN Network Management (CIDIN operator messages)
• Packet segmentation for transfer via (private and public) Packet Switched Networks (PSN)
• Intermediate storage capabilities

AMHS Component

The AMHS component meets the requirements for physical configurations defined for ATS messaging organizations:

• Interpersonal messaging and message store services
• Underlying protocol layer according to the ATN conventions
• AFTN/AMHS gateway functionality

Network and Application Management System

The Network Management System provides SNMP monitoring and control of all major system components. It is complemented by Application Management Services, which provide a comprehensive set of control functions for the supervision and configuration of the messaging application software.

Basic Design Elements.
High Availability Cluster Configuration

The solution is based on robust cluster architecture. Typically, two host computers and an array of mirrored disks are connected to form a high-availability cluster. The two host computers can perform load sharing or operate in active/ stand-by mode. Outstanding levels of availability and flexibility for supporting mission critical applications are achieved in the operational systems delivered by Avitech AG.