A Design of an Ip Voice Communication System for Air Traffic Control by Use of Open Source Software

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to suggest a design of an IP based Voice Communication System for Air Traffic Control by use of Open source software. With the advent of new VOIP standard for Air Traffic Control, it has resulted in a research opportunity. This research opportunity is driven by the fact that unlike the old technology we have legacy open source IP telephony software which can be modified through research to provide necessary VOIP functionalities for Air Traffic Control voice. Also, this research opportunity is being driven by the fact that Telecommunication service providers are replacing analog/Time division multiplexing communication links with IP based communication links. Most Voice communication system manufacturers have ceased investment and production of the old voice communication system, and therefore the cost of spares are bound to increase. A subset of the requirements of ED 137 B standard was used in the design of a prototype. Design Research as a strategy was employed in this project because it is concerned with design or improvement of artifacts. The selection of this strategy was informed by the fact it is linked to Design Science Research DSR paradigm which underpins the philosophy of this project. The general methodology for design research by Vaishnavi and Kuechler (2015) was employed to guide the activities of the project. In the development phase of the general method for design research, we applied software reengineering methodology to develop four algorithms using legacy telephone software as the base software. The design was subjected to experimental evaluation to check to on functionality as per ED 137 B VOIP standard and usability. The form of experimental evaluation used was a simulation, and with this, we used SIP tester simulation software. The results of the evaluation showed that some functionality of the standard were met. The above proved that using open source software; we can be able to design an IP based Voice Communication Control System for Air Traffic Control.