ATSA of Bulgaria embarks on ADS-B

KARLSRUHE, GERMANY, April 2008 In March ATSA ordered from Germanys ATC/ATM specialist COMSOFT a first Quadrant ADS-B ground station including a control and monitoring system and real time data presentation. ATSA is embarking on this new technology and intends to evaluate the expected operational benefits of ADS-B in a trial phase throughout the year. The system has been installed at the ATSA building in Sofia past month and complements the multiple radar sources delivering data to this site. The extremely rapid setting up of the ultra compact system prompted Vladimir Gochev, an expert within the surveillance department, to state: As usual we are impressed by the quality of COMSOFT material and the timely delivery.

The Quadrant ADS-B ground station has been integrated in ATSA's sophisticated test-environment, including ARTAS, the EUROCONTROL ATM surveillance tracker and server. ARTAS will process ADS-B reports in addition to data received from the national surveillance radars. As part of the delivery, COMSOFT provided a localised version of its Quadrant Control and Monitoring System (QCMS), offering real time data presentation and sophisticated performance assessments of ADS-B ground stations.

ADS-B is the emerging surveillance technology, enhancing the quality of surveillance services with higher update rates than conventional radars and unambiguous position reports, by broadcasting extended squitter messages in the form of 1090 MHz Mode-S signals.