AMHS Jordan – U.A.E. operational

 

The AMHS link between the Communication Centres of Amman/Jordan, and Abu Dhabi/United Arab Emirates, is fully operational and in use since 3rd of March 2010. It is also the first international AMHS via VPN implementation world-wide.

The commitment of the Jordan Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC), to ensure safety and efficiency in the aviation industry in general and for air navigation in particular, resulted in the implementation of a new integrated AFTN/AMHS system in the Amman COM Centre. The system, supplied by the German manufacturer Avitech, is directly connected to four adjacent COM Centres by means of international AFTN circuits.

With the common objective of enhancing the quality of Air Traffic Services information exchange between Jordan and the United Arab Emirates as well as within the ICAO MID Region, CARC and the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the U.A.E. decided to establish an AMHS link between the two countries. At a kick-off meeting held on 6-7 January 2010 in Abu Dhabi an action plan was developed to achieve this goal. CARC and GCAA agreed to set up a TCP/IP connection between the COM Centres via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) through the public internet and to establish an AMHS link via this connection in order to verify interoperability between the two systems, the stability of the systems and the underlying network and finally to start operational use of this AMHS link.

The network connection through the VPN was established and successfully tested on schedule in the first week of February. The first test messages were exchanged between the operational AFTN/AMHS switch in Amman and an AFTN/AMHS test system in Abu Dhabi on 4th February. Based on that, bilateral AMHS Interoperability Tests according to ICAO EUR Doc 020 – EUR AMHS Manual, Appendix E were performed on the 21st - 22nd February 2010. All tests were passed successfully.

Following the excellent results of the Interoperability Tests the teams in both countries started Pre-Operational Tests according to Appendix F of the EUR AMHS Manual on 23rd February. Initially the switch in Amman remained connected to the test system in Abu Dhabi, which in turn was connected to the operational system in Abu Dhabi. During the Pre-Operational Tests the live traffic between Jordan and the U.A.E. was still exchanged via the AFTN centers in Jeddah and Bahrain, whilst messages with OJ and OM recipient addresses were additionally distributed via the new AMHS link. Evaluation and cross-check of the received and transmitted messages on both sides did not show any discrepancy, difference or error. With this observation the two operational systems were directly connected, and after another day of successful Pre-Operational tests with the configuration as described in Appx. F, operational use of the AMHS connection was started on 3rd March 2010. During March 2010 only messages with OJ and OM recipient addresses are exchanged via AMHS; after one month OO addresses (Oman) shall be added. The network connection through VPN has proven to be very stable during the test and operational phases.

This AMHS link is a real life example of what can be achieved when the administrations are highly committed, the teams co-operate intensively and industry provides full support. In a very short time CARC and GCAA have not only taken a significant step forward in terms of improving safety and efficiency for air navigation by providing a fully operational AMHS link between Jordan and the U.A.E., they have also implemented the first international AMHS connection via VPN anywhere world-wide.

CARC urges and invites other States to upgrade the telecommunication infrastructure, start AMHS connections and perform Interoperability and Pre-Operational tests with the Amman Centre or with any other centre to improve the exchange of operational AMHS traffic.