GL’s radio emulator connects to live ROMATSA radio at World ATM Congress

Gaithersburg, MD. GL Communications Inc. announced that its MAPS ED-137 radio emulator was successfully demonstrated to test a VoIP ATM system at the World ATM Congress held March 8-10 in Madrid, Spain. Jagdish Vadalia, a senior manager for product development at the company, said the GL’s MAPS ED-137 was connected to a Rohde & Schwarz radio located in Romania with the help of the Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration Staff (ROMATSA). This radio is responsible for a certain sector of the Romanian airspace.

The ED-137B connection was made with GL’s MAPS radio emulator in “RX Only” mode. Any airplane communication (squelch break) from an airplane in that sector was heard by GL’s tool. The ED-137B connection was also monitored with GL’s PacketScan, which was able to show (in real-time) all of the voice and packet characteristics of the connection.

Vadalia said that the emulator, developed per EUROCAE (European Organization for Civil Aviation Equipment) Working Group 67 ED-137B documents, is set to become the benchmark emulator for Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP) as well as voice communication system and aeronautical radio vendors operating in the field.

He added, “Besides the emulator products, ANSPs particularly appreciated the GL PacketScan application that is able to measure not only voice quality MOS values in real time over multiple established sessions, but also latency, jitter, and packet-loss values as well as raise alarms when measured values exceed the limits set by the EUROCAE WG67 ED-138 document. Tools like these especially designed for ANSP-specific requirements are essential as the world’s air traffic management voice networks migrate towards IP. But it is imperative that before such a system is deployed live, thorough testing for delay, noise, voice quality, performance, reliability, and other critical functionalities be performed.”

He concluded, “GL’s tools provide for testing of such critical functionalities like signaling and traffic simulation, monitoring, and voice quality testing over an end-to-end test solution for testing any point in ATM network, from the radio interfaces to the Controller Working Position (CWP).