News
NAV CANADA enhances ATM technology platform

The Company began its investigation of technology options in April 2012 and the RTI solution, a modern, data-centric, standards-based next generation middleware platform, was selected following a successful implementation of the evaluation phase.
 
NAVCANtrac (in Canada, the Canadian Automated Air Traffic System or CAATS) provides advanced air traffic management, automating and integrating flight data from multiple sources.  Traffic can be viewed and managed over a very large national airspace using an advanced graphic display. Routine tasks such as flight plan generation, data communication, and sector coordination along with modern ATM decision support functionality allow controllers to more safely and efficiently manage the airspace in their jurisdiction.
 
The advanced processing capabilities of the RTI Connext DDS air traffic management and support system enhances the current level of automation and integration of flight data between NAV CANADA air traffic control facilities, multiple surveillance sources, and external systems. It will be used for internal system communications, as well as act as the interface to external system communications.
 
NAV CANADA’s program of ongoing investment and in-house development of functional technology enhancements has now extended to all aspects of NAVCANtrac. As part of the evolution of the system’s capability, the deployment of RTI Connext DDS will complete the replacement of the middleware software for NAVCANtrac, reducing the volume of application code, and provide a foundation for future technology enhancements.
 
“RTI Connext DDS was selected for its extensive compliance with the Object Management Group (OMG) DDS standard; its high security rating; its wide support of tools and programming languages, and its reputation for performance, scalability and 24/7 reliability,” said Sid Koslow, chief technology officer, NAV CANADA. “It is a good fit to support current and future software development for the NAVCANtrac distributed architecture.
 
“We are pleased that NAV CANADA has selected Connext DDS,” said David Barnett, VP of product management at RTI.  "It will ease transition of the currently operational and proven NAVCANtrac system to a more flexible, scalable and interoperable Open Architecture. This will accelerate the release of enhancements while reducing software development and integration costs."
 
With its 4-D flight trajectories, NAVCANtrac provides precise information about the current and future position of every aircraft through space and time, improving safety as well as flight predictability. In addition, NAVCANtrac makes full use of the latest surveillance fusion technology, displaying a seamless presentation of targets generated from a variety of surveillance sources. As a precursor to enhanced capacity, the system also offers a set of comprehensive Safety Net features, which provide controllers with additional tools to enhance safety and efficiency.