SITTI IN SESAR ANTICIPATE PROJECT

It is a big honour for us to announce that SESAR approved the ANTICIPATE project to be eligible for being granted as an interesting Exploratory Research project (ER) under Grant Agreement 101166947. Six partners will be developing the project under the chairmanship of Miquel Àngel Piera Eroles:

  1. Autonomous University of Barcelona (coordinator) – Spain
  2. SITTI – Italy
  3. Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali (CIRA) – Italy
  4. Institute For Sustainable Society And Innovation (ISSN) – Italy
  5. Technische Universität Braunschweig (TUBS) – Germany
  6. Eurocontrol – Belgium

This is the first time SITTI is a prime actor in SESAR projects: till now the contribution of our company to SESAR projects has been through other companies like ENAV. About one year ago, SITTI was the coordinator of another proposed project, named COVER, which has been positively evaluated but not funded by SESAR due to budget limitations.

The basic idea behind ANTICIPATE (acronym for Absorb Nearby Tidy Identified Candidates for Ideal Parteking Available Extra-Capacity) is the identification of a set of aircrafts that can be delegated to an adjacent sector to balance the workload of controllers and better exploit the capacity of each sector, by transferring the competence of a given number of aircrafts from an overloaded sector to a less engaged one.

This shall be accomplished by also taking into consideration the trajectories of the aircrafts and other possible traffic limitations, while maintaining the minimum separation between aircrafts. This project differs from possibly correlated concepts such as Dynamic Airspace Configuration (DAC) and Dynamic Airspace Sectorization (DAS) because the airspace is not “deformed” nor “reconfigured”, but the intended result is obtained by transferring a properly identified group of aircrafts from a controller to another, with temporary modification of the airspace structure.

VATM signs contract for SITTI VCS

On September 11, an important contract has been signed between the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) and SITTI for the supply of a new Voice Communication System (VCS) system. This contract (worth about 1.6 million euro) is part of the “Ho Chi Minh Air Traffic Control Centre – ATCC/HCM“ project which includes the “Supply and installation of VCCS voice communication and control system“.

The new contract signed in Ha Noi came after a harsh selection process of international vendors, during which both technical and financial proposals have been analysed by VATM, aiming at providing the Ho Chi Minh City Air Traffic Control Centre (ATCC) with one of the most important equipment needed for air traffic control (ATC). The contract envisages one main VCS system with 80 working positions, plus a backup/training one with further 70 working positions.

The VCS voice communication that will be supplied by SITTI will allow Vietnamese ATCOs to proactively, efficiently and effectively manage the air traffic flow over the vast airspace under their control, thus contributing to the overall flight safety in the area. The new system at ATCC/HCM will in fact ensure the provision of air navigation services for the Ho Chi Minh FIR (Flight Information Region).

At the signing ceremony, VATM was represented by Deputy General Director Ho Sy Tung, while SITTI representative was Mr. Gianluca Codega, Sales Director. Both expressed their satisfaction for the positive conclusion of the evaluation process and its finalisation.

This major project is an important development step for VATM, and SITTI is glad to be part of this process. With almost 80 years of experience in providing equipment systems for air traffic control, SITTI is grateful to VATM for its trust in the company as the supplier of the VCS system, that will contribute to ensuring safe and effective air traffic operations in the region thanks to its compliance to the tough technical requirements set, its proven high reliability and flexibility, meeting current operational needs and scalable to meet future operational needs.

KLIA EXTENSION BY SITTI

The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) is a very busy airport in the Far East, which SITTI has already provided a number of solutions for air traffic control. The Eastern and Western towers of this large airport require extensions for interfacing new radios, namely 19 radio receivers plus 18 radio transmitters.

SITTI will therefore supply all needed equipment for the proper handling of these new radio connections, also including BSS (Best Signal Selection) functions that automatically choose the best received audio from different receivers operating on the same frequency. All the new boards are envisaged to be physically installed in the already existing racks placed in the two towers, thus not requiring any additional space in the respective equipment rooms.

The extension is going to be installed in the next few months to cope with the agreed SAT time schedule, according to which all activities shall be completed by the end of next March.

The new boards are added to the existing VCS (Voice Communication System) without disruption of ongoing services, so that their smooth and seamless introduction will allow ATCOs to immediately access the new communication facilities without experiencing any outage of the system.

SITTI EMERGENCY ACCESS DEVICE (EAD) IN DJIBOUTI

SITTI has always been on the forefront in the development of advanced and technologically unparalleled solutions for the ATC/ATM fields (Air Traffic Control/Management). Among these, EAD is particularly interesting because it provides final users with an emergency, easy-to-use, reliable means for getting access to remote radios in contingency situations.

EAD (Emergency Access Device) is a compact all-in-one, powerful and modular solution, designed in accordance with EUROCAE ED137 standard. The concept behind EAD design is to serve Air Traffic Control Centres for contingency purposes as Last Resort System, but its performance perfectly fits the applications for small-sized airports or towers, transportable solutions and movable shelters.

EAD allows direct VoIP ED137 communications with any radio equipment. Whenever required, it can be also equipped with telephone connectivity, allowing ED137-based calls to other devices connected through the LAN/WAN and supporting the functionality. EAD can manage up to 8 simultaneous VoIP connections to single channel radios using the EUROCAE ED137 standard and SIP/RTP protocol for voice traffic:

Because of its intrinsic flexibility and reliability, SITTI EAD solutions are about to be installed at the Djibouti airport, in one of the most strategic areas in the world, just in front of the entrance to the Red Sea. Through its 7-inch touch-screen, local controllers can connect their electroacoustic devices (headphone/microphone/PTT) to establish emergency radio connections sparse over the territory.

SITTI is a primary VCS manufacturer and supplier worldwide, capable of giving prompt and top edge solution answers to Customer needs, both in the Civil and Military fields. The leading edge, redundant, non-blocking architecture of the SYNCRONIS® MULTIFONO® M800IP® provides flexibility and modularity for easy expansion and addition of further functionalities.

SITTI AT RIMINI MEETING 2024

From August 20 to 25, SITTI will be exposing at the Rimini Meeting, the annual event organized by the Communion and Liberation movement. This is the 45th edition of this important event, whose importance in the cultural, political, religious and social fields is continuously growing: more than 700.000 persons are expected to visit the meeting this year.

The title chosen for the current edition raises a great challenge for us: ‘If we are not looking for the essential then, what are we looking for?’. The meeting in Rimini (https://www.meetingrimini.org/) is intended to show that all human aspects are strictly interconnected: society, economics, religion, work, finance all involve us as a whole and we have to think and follow what is really important to us, the essential.

ENAV and SITTI together showed how they contribute to the activities ruled by the Ministry for infrastructure and transport (MIT), by allowing visitors of all ages and all kind of backgrounds to understand how Air Traffic Control (ATC) works and is organized. Most visitors are not aware of what happens “behind the scenes” when they get on a plane and they get surprised when they start understanding how much technology is involved to guarantee they reach their destination safely and timely.

The ENAV-SITTI joint stand has been visited by the Ministry for infrastructure and transport, Mr. Matteo Salvini, who congratulated for the constant attention to passengers and the advanced technological achievements and future projects that are being implemented by the two companies.

SITTI is grateful for the opportunity it is having to reach the general public through the Meeting in Rimini, allowing visitors to appreciate the topmost level of technology applied to Air Traffic Control, developed by a fully Italian company.

SITTI AT ENAV RTCC CENTER IN BRINDISI

Remote Towers are getting more and more popular in the ATC world, allowing the remote execution of all tasks usually performed by air traffic controllers operating from a tower located at the airport site. Today’s technology is in fact capable of making all required information available at a different site, where controllers access the same features that would be accessible in a conventional airport tower.

This makes a big difference because controllers are not asked to be physically on site, but they can work remotely in a so-called Remote Tower Control Centre (RTCC) from which a number of airports can be managed simultaneously from one location. Of course, this implies the capability of the involved systems to remote all their interfaces, to give operators the feeling of being physically sitting in the airport tower, even if they are hundreds of kilometres afar. Video streams caught by cameras of different kinds are displayed to provide an out-of-window view of the airport. Radio and telephone voice communication means is also made available remotely.

ENAV, the Italian ANSP, is in the process of building up a RTCC in Brindisi to gradually move the management of small to medium airports to this centralized facility. For the accomplishment of this task, SITTI has been asked to cooperate with the provision of a new MULTIFONO® M800IP® system to be used as the main VCS. These systems will be integrated with a data and voice recording and replay system (named VRS800S), also capable of recording ambient audio.

The new M800IP® Voice Communication System (VCS) will be equipped with a total of 48 new controller working positions (CWP), capable of seamlessly access analogue, digital and VoIP (Voice over IP) radio and telephone links through high level, top performing, touch screen panels. The emergency VCS will be complemented by another 15 CWPs and additional telephone and radio channels. All what above is accompanied by the VRS800S Voice Recording System, capable of simultaneously record more than 100 VoIP channels and 120 E1 channels, plus ambient audio.

ENAV and SITTI are together building up a modern remote control centre that will allow the Italian ANSP reducing operative costs, without renouncing to its high level standards of high reliability and safety to the benefit of all airlines and passengers.

SITTI NATIONAL WIDE MILITARY ED137 NETWORK

The Italian Air Force (AM – Aeronautica Militare) has recently awarded SITTI the implementation of a geographical network connecting its main sites by use of the VoIP (Voice over IP) technology. The same network will be also used as the backbone for the Remote Instant Messaging service between operators located at different sites.

SITTI boasts a very solid and long-lasting strict relationship with AM that brought along the past decades at the installation of several VCS (Voice Communication Systems) in the airbases all over Italy. These systems are now going to be upgraded to be part of a large nation-wide standard network.

Dedicated so-called SCC/AM (Servizi Coordinamento e Controllo) centres are operating 24/7 to allow efficient and effective coordination between civil and military flights and to provide the air traffic control service in the military dedicated airspace. All these centres will now be connected to a nation-wide network, allowing direct connection on one side to the military control centres and on the other side to all military airfield towers.

The contract between the Air Force and SITTI envisages the installation or upgrade of MULTIFONO® M800IP® systems developed by SITTI, to allow VoIP communications in full adherence and compliance to the world renowned standard ED137. The new network architecture is not only allowing more efficient links between operators, but also dramatically reduces the amount of network resources needed: dedicated links are no longer needed as the bandwidth is only occupied while conversations are in place, thus giving the overall network a much greater throughput.

All what above is accomplished by server-based VCS systems of the M800IP® family, connected to the network via duplicated independent interfaces for reliability purposes and security reasons, thus fully isolating the local VCSs from the outer world, preventing possible unauthorized access.

The implementation of such an important and large-scope project once more testifies the capability of SITTI to tackle challenging scenarios.” – Mr. Massimo Romata, SITTI Program Manager, stated – “This also applies to those clients for which security is of utmost importance, as for military purposes.

EUROCAE WG122 – SITTI CONTRIBUTION

Always very attentive to the evolutions in the field of voice handling, SITTI is actively participating in the EUROCAE WG122 working group devoted to the definition of virtual centres and all their implications on the services needed for an efficient, safe, effective management of the air traffic.

On May 21, ENAV hosted a WG122 meeting at their nice facilities in Rome Ciampino, during which several important aspects on virtual centres have been discussed. Many experts from different companies representing both ANSPs (Air Navigation Service Providers) and industry met to commence work on a new document “Virtual Centre – Guidelines for Implementation”.

SITTI was represented by its Innovation Manager, Roberto Weger, who described the framework of the contingency and delegation use cases related to the initial deployment of the virtual centre concept within ENAV.

SITTI SPONSOR TO IFATSEA ARM 2024

IFATSEA (International Federation of Air Traffic Safety Electronics Associations) will be having its annual regional meeting in Casablanca from the 25th to 28th of June 2024. This is the annual gathering of IFATSEA delegates that will participate in the 14th IFATSEA Africa Region Meeting (ARM) 2024, hosted by Morrocco’s Association of Civil Aviation Electronics Engineers (AEAC).

The focus of the conference is very interesting and challenging, tackling Artificial Intelligence (AI) under the title of “Emergence of newer technologies and their significance to the ATSEP profession: the case of Artificial Intelligence in the CNS/ ATM industry”. AI is in fact one of most promising yet debated technologies that are expected to heavily influence our future, especially in the field of air traffic control and management. More information on the event can be found here: http://www.ifatseaarm24.org

SITTI has always been paying great attention to IFATSEA, where professionals from different countries can share their views and define the technological, industrial, business future of the countries they can from. The active participation of representatives from many African countries (including ANSPs and airport operators) testifies the importance of events like this, where SITTI as a manufacturers can understand the evolving needs of the local market and vice versa present its solutions, leveraging its large experience from many installations worldwide. ANSPs, Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA), Airport Operators are here represented by Director Generals, Chief Executive Officers, Managing Directors thus confirming the high level of the event.

SITTI confirmed its sponsorship to the event, as done in past editions.

SITTI will be represented by the Area Manager for Africa, Mr. Michael Quartier.

SITTI/ENAV TIIS AT DUBAI AIRPORT SHOW

SITTI and ENAV proudly present the co-brand Tower Integrated Information System (TIIS), an innovative and advanced platform crafted to streamline operations within airport control towers.

TIIS stands as a state-of-the-art hardware and software solution, seamlessly consolidating diverse data sources into a unified product. Its primary objective is to reduce the number of objects on the operative desks, by condensing multiple services into a single interface, thereby augmenting operators’ situational awareness while executing their duties safely.

TIIS boasts the capability to integrate both proprietary and third-party legacy systems, ensuring seamless compatibility and interoperability.

Through the synergistic partnership between SITTI and ENAV, our collective vision is to strengthen efficiency, safety, and air traffic management to unparalleled heights. Together, we present a comprehensive and pioneering solution tailored for the evolution of Digital Towers, marking a significant stride in the progress of air traffic management technology.

We extend a warm invitation to join us at Dubai Airport Show at the ATC Forum on Wednesday, May 15th, at 15:00, where we will unveil the groundbreaking capabilities of TIIS.