Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) International Airport-UAE

Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) International Airport-UAE

Upgrade of the Copperchase ATC AFTN Messaging System

Despite the COVID Pandemic, Copperchase has managed to successfully build, install, and commission (all remotely) an ATC Message Processing System for Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The project is an Upgrade of the Copperchase ATC AFTN Messaging System, a system that has been in use in the ATC environment at RAK International Airport since 2006. The upgrade involves transition from legacy AFTN circuits to faster and reliable IP based AMHS network. However, due to the requirement to support existing systems, AMHS-AFTN conversion has been included for ATM tracks correlation.

All Hardware for this project was built and supplied by Copperchase in the UK,

The upgrade is fully compliant to Basic AMHS service level and to a wide extent the Extended service level like support of FTBP messages. The applications providing elements of functionality have upgraded/changed to the following functions: –

• ATC Message Interface

• Transitioned to AMHS X.400 P3 link to UAE ACC.

• ATC Message Processing

• The new ATC Message system utilises Copperchase ATC MESSAGING and the Microsoft SQL Database.

• ATC Message Client

• AMHSTERM – The Copperchase AMHS Terminal (AMHSTERM) is an ICAO SARPs compliant X.400 User Agent, which allows end users to send and receive ATC messages. It has been specifically designed with the needs of ATS operators in mind, providing a full set of ICAO 4444 forms in addition to viewing of messages in a queue, similar to an email client application, allowing users to distinguish between read and unread messages, delete or store  messages as templates for later use.