The UK air navigation service provider (ANSP) NATS has selected German company Rohde & Schwarz to deliver and deploy its voice communications system (VCS) at London City Airport's digital tower.

Rohde & Schwarz has been working with NATS to install its VCS system in a new digital control room at the Swanwick area control centre (ACC).

The fully internet protocol (IP)-based R&S VCS-4G system has been designed to address modern air traffic control (ATC) requirements concerning asset sharing, facility consolidation, geographical distribution and remote tower technology.

It is ready to be installed in digital tower solutions that enable control of airports for resource optimisation or geographic backup.

"The R&S VCS-4G solution supports shared access to remote radio and telephony resources, which enable the ATC towers to be remotely operated from other locations."

Based on the complete IP system architecture and distributed infrastructure, the R&S VCS-4G solution supports shared access to remote radio and telephony resources, which enable the ATC towers to be remotely operated from other locations.

The system will interface with existing analogue radio equipment located at the airport by using R&S radio gateways which convert voice over internet protocol (VoIP) based communications signals for call control and media information to conventional analogue signals, and vice versa.

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Supporting ground to ground and ground-air-ground communications, the technology will provide a comprehensive range of voice communication tools to air traffic controllers.

The R&S VCS-4G system is scalable and can be expanded without replacing existing equipment.

The digital tower at London City Airport is slated to be operational in 2019.

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