New AMHS for Macao Gained Site Acceptance

COMSOFT's AMHS passed site acceptance test in Macao. Documents were signed and certified by ICAO and AACM.

MACAO, October 2008 - Strictly in line with the project's time schedule, ICAO and the Civil Aviation Authority of Macao (AACM) signed and certified the site acceptance to Macao's new AMHS system provided by the German ATM specialist COMSOFT. Prior to this important certificate the system has been rigidly tested by ICAO and AACM in order to verify the full compliance with the functional and operational requirements. In particular these requirements were the relevant ICAO specification as well as the demands on high reliability and product safety. Special attention has been paid to ensure the full compliance of the system with the ATN SARPS defined by ICAO.

The core of the new AMHS is COMSOFT's proven AIDA-NG product line, complemented by COMSOFT's terminal solution CADAS, which combines the latest AMHS User Agent technology with the comfort of modern flight planning terminals. The system also comprises servers for the ATN directory which accomplish the system's capabilities in the Extended AMHS Service. The Extended AMHS Service comprises handling of file attachments (binary file transfer body parts) as well as various security features and global address look-up facilities. The site acceptance test phase will be followed by a confidence period and trials with other AMHS implementations in the region.

The new COMSOFT system will be Macao's future AMHS, providing the ground-ground communication services which will first supplement and later supersede the current AFTN infrastructure. It will make use of the Asia-Pacific Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN) to connect to adjacent centres in Hong Kong and Beijing. Again, AACM and its communication partners can benefit from the interoperability of AIDA-NG, proven in regional and inter-regional trials and operational connections.