Product Service Offering

The ADS product range is geared towards commercial aviation data link technologies encompassing ACARS, VDL and VDB which all form an integral part of the global advance towards the CNS/ATM environment.

where:

• ACARS is "Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System".
  
• VDL is "VHF Data Link" which is the high data rate successor to ACARS for airline operations. Both systems will co-exist for many years to come.
  
• VDB is "VHF Data Broadcast" and relates to the transmission of GNSS LAAS (Local Area Augmentation System) messages.

The product range includes operational, test and development systems.

The majority of test equipment systems are PC based and operate on a user supplied PC or alternatively they can be supplied in an integrated platform that includes a notebook PC for full portability. PATS and MVDL fall into this category.

All products are based on current ICAO, RTCA and AEEC standards.

The following table shows the major product groups and their typical application environment.

PC.ACARS	•	•	•
PVDL	•	•	•
VDB Gen		•	•
VDB Analyser		•	•	•
PATS	•	•	•	•	•
MVDL	•	•	•	•	•
Mini-VDR	•	•	•			•
MPRT	•			•	•	•
PAGN							•

Hardware / Software

PC.ACARS                 Technical Details

PC.ACARS is a hardware module that enables a PC to passively monitor or become an active participant as either an aircraft ACARS management unit or an ACARS Ground Station. It offers menu selectable operation as an ACARS Management Unit or ACARS Ground Station and allows the user to observe exactly what the aircraft is sending rather than what the service provider passes. The system can also be used to generate RF message sequences for use in qualification testing of ACARS avionics.

PVDL                       Technical Details

The Mini-VDR is a small compact VDL Mode 2 digital radio and is the core of ADS's Portable VDL (PVDL) System. It is the VDL technology "equivalent" of the PC.ACARS product. The PVDL product consists of both the Mini-VDR (hardware) and the PVDL operating software. Applications for both PC.ACARS and PVDL systems include development systems for aircraft and ground systems manufacturers, aircraft ramp test set, a ground station monitor and test station.

VDB Generator / Analyser                   Technical Details

The VDB application suite is designed to operate with Mini-VDR (hardware) to provide a compact and affordable GNSS test tool. The suite consists of two primary applications, namely VDB Generator and VDB Analyser. The VDB Generator simulates a Ground Station by providing a versatile source of VDB messages to exercise message decoding in the aircraft VDR or GNLU under test. Whereas, the VDB Analyser monitors the local VDB transmitter or airborne VDR and provides functional reports about the equipment under test.

Note: Both the PVDL and VDB applications are also offered in a fully integrated portable format which includes a notebook PC and rechargeable batteries. In this format, the product is referred to as MVDL (Mobile VDL) and MVDB (Mobile VDB) respectively.

PATS                Technical Details

PATS is a fully integrated portable system combining PC. ACARS with a notebook PC and portable VHF transceiver for use in the field as a system monitor, an ACARS system interrogator or ramp/field test set. PATS has been selected by SITA for worldwide application for RGS station testing (in this application PATS is known as IFTS - Integrated Field Test Set).

Both the PVDL and VDB applications are offered in this integrated format as MVDL (Mobile VDL) and MVDB (Mobile VDB) respectively.

PAGN                Technical Details

PAGN is an ACARS ground station network that is essentially owned and operated by the airline thus avoiding the high and continuous operating costs associated the traditional datalink service providers (Arinc & SITA).  The airline locates ground stations where it requires them to be.   All ground stations are essentially just another terminal on the exisitng airline network - connected to a host computer also housed by the airline.  The host computer runs the ACARS application, communicating with the aircraft and providing a gateway to existing and new airline business and communications applications.

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End User Benefits

In test and laboratory applications PVDL, VDB and PATS/PC.ACARS emulates (or ‘takes the place of’) either an aircraft system or a ground system. In operational system applications, the ADS product becomes a fully functional entity in the data communications configuration. The following breakdown describes how the ADS product group may be of benefit to different customer groups.

1.    Manufacturers of Airborne and Ground Based Equipment

Benefits:

1. Avionics Manufacturers: Can simulate outside world environment using PVDL, VDB Generator or PC.ACARS systems as a ground station network in the lab. This means that their new and developing products can be functionally tested in the lab, progressively as each new feature is added. Migration to the real-world ground network will not be such a large step in testing.
2. Ground Equipment Manufacturers: Can simulate outside world environment using PVDL or PC.ACARS systems as an aircraft in the lab. This means that new and developing products can be functionally tested in the lab, progressively as each new feature is added without having to have arrange for test aircraft - which would be an enormous expense and very difficult to perform repeat testing.  In addition, VDB Analyser can be used for short term functional testing of new and developing products, or longer term monitoring of existing infrastructure.

2.    Ground Network Service Providers

Benefits:

Basically same as (1b) above - as new ground stations are installed around the world, PVDL, VDB Analyser or PC-ACARS can be used as an aircraft to perform a set group of tests rather than rely on having a test aircraft available.

3.    Aircraft Manufacturers

Benefits:

Basically same as (1a) above - aircraft and aircraft system laboratories can use PVDL, VDB Generator or PC.ACARS to perform the function of a ground station in communicating with the aircraft system. The integrated platforms (MVDL / PATS) are usually the preferred format in these applications. The MPRT ramp test set suits those applications where a simple Go/No-Go result is adequate but diagnostic investigation is not required.

4.    Regulatory Authorities and their Agencies

Benefits:

PVDL, VDB and PC.ACARS systems can be used in development trials to act as either aircraft or ground station systems - or can simply act as an independent monitoring system and data logger to observe communications between other entities. Both the ‘stand-alone’ and integrated platforms may be suitable.

5.    Airlines and Aircraft Maintenance Organisations

Benefits:

PAGN provides the opportunity for an airline or other agency to operate its own data link network of ground stations at significantly lower annual operating costs. Where the on-going cost of data link communications has been a major deterrent to entering the ‘data link family’, PAGN is a serious alternative.