Iceland’s airport and air navigation service provider (ISAVIA) has installed Rohde & Schwarz’ advanced voice quality assurance system (AVQA) as a fully IP-based Voice Communication System (VCS) for the Reykjavik oceanic control area (OCA).

In terms of safety and efficiency, ISAVIA operates in one of the world’s most demanding operational air traffic control (ATC) environments over the North Atlantic.  The Reykjavik OCA handles around 100,000 aircraft annually and in order to monitor and maintain high service quality, R&S AVQA covers four sites, including area control centre and radio sites. The monitoring includes air-ground (A/G), ground-ground (G/G), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), frequency and loopback monitoring.

“We are pleased with our longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Rohde & Schwarz and already use its CERTIUM VCS,” said Oskar Egilsson, Technical Operations Manager at ISAVIA. “We were one of the first ANSPs to adopt the ED-137 standard. Now R&S AVQA provides us with a unique passive monitoring capability that covers signalling as well as media and radio transmission performance.”

In a world-first deployment, enabling virtual ATC centre operations, ISAVIA and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) operate their individual control centres in Gufunes and Ballyqirreen on demand in joint operation mode, sharing radio and telephony communications resources as if they were in a single ATC centre.

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