Malta going to expand SITTI VCS system

In spite of being a very small country, the airspace controlled by the Maltese ACC (Area Control Centre) is very large, thanks to the strategic position in the Mediterranean Sea. Several years ago, SITTI already supplied Malta with a redundant VCS (Voice Communication System) that is now facing the need for an expansion to cope with modern VoIP (Voice over IP) radio links and telephone lines.

EUROCAE ED137 is the reference standard in VoIP connections for radio, telephone and recording. Modern SITTI systems are natively equipped with ED137-compliant interfaces, thus supporting all foreseen features. The existing VCS system in Malta is however based on an older technology, which shall now be complemented with more advanced and standard-related interfaces to connect to radio links and telephone lines based on a standard that was not available at the time of the supply.

Here the flexibility of SITTI systems is proven to its extreme extent, allowing an old-fashioned technology to be integrated with the most recent achievements in the field of air traffic control. The expansion of the system will allow seamless integration between the existing facilities with VoIP technology, so that operators of the local ANSP (MATS – Malta Air Traffic Services) will have the possibility of utilising all new features from their current controller working positions without the need of changing their habits.