Messaging and Directory Server software used around the world in the Government, Military, Aviation and Commercial sectors.
Solutions
Aviation Messaging (AMHS)
The aviation industry is adopting AMHS (Air Traffic Services (ATS) Message Handling Services) to support ground to ground communications for services such as flight plans and meteorological data. This will eventually replace the current AFTN (Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network) and CIDIN (Common ICAO Data Interchange Network) based systems.
AMHS is now being deployed around the globe with many countries using solutions from Isode partners, based on Isode servers and APIs.
AMHS Architecture
AMHS provides a distributed message switching and storage infrastructure, to enable transfer of ATS messages, such as flight plans, NOTAM (Notice to Airman) and Meteorological information. Isode provides the servers used in building an AMHS Infrastructure, as shown in the diagram above:
- M-Switch X.400: An X.400 MTA (Message Transfer Agent) that provides the core message switching services and connects to external systems.
- M-Store X.400: An X.400 Message Store, for storing messages.
The AMHS service is accessed by users, using AMHS terminals, and applications (such as Meteorological applications), in order to exchange ATS messages. AMHS Terminals and AMHS Applications connect to the AMHS infrastructure using X.400 protocols as shown in the diagram below. Isode provides integration products for developers of AMHS Terminals and AMHS Applications. You can read more about AMHS Terminals here and see examples of AMHS Terminals produced by Isode partners here.
AFTN Transition and Co-Existence
As ground to ground messaging moves from AFTN to AMHS, it is important that full connectivity is maintained. This is achieved by use of an AFTN/AMHS gateway, which is formally known as an MTCU (Message Transfer and Conversion Unit). MTCUs are critical to enabling full connectivity while both AMHS and AFTN are being used. MTCUs are available from Isode partners. Isode provides the AMHS side of an MTCU, to enable development of an MTCU.
The ATN Directory and Extended ATS Service
AMHS defines two services:
- The Basic ATS Service, which provides functionality equivalent to AFTN.
- The Extended ATS Service, which provides additional services and functions, including security based on digital signatures; binary attachments; large attachments.
The Isode servers and integration APIs provide full support for both the Basic and Extended ATS Service. A key element of the Extended ATS Service is use of the ATN Directory. Isode provides a full ATN Directory solution, described here.
Isode's AMHS Servers also make use of Isode’s M-Vault directory server for configuration information, and so directory will be used as a part of all Isode AMHS systems.
Learning more about AMHS
Isode has information on its solutions and white papers. A good place to start is with the AMHS Architecture page. Several of the Isode partners also have excellent information about AMHS on their Web sites. Training on AMHS is available from two companies:
Isode Partners
AMHS enabled applications, and solutions comprising AMHS Servers, AMHS Terminals and MTCUs are available from Isode's partners (click for more info):
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CAAs and ANSPs needing such solutions and should directly contact Isode's partners.
Becoming an Isode Partner
Organizations developing applications that need to make use of AMHS can enable this by using Isodes AMHS Client API, which enables the applications to be easily extended to send and receive messages over AMHS.
Information for organizations wishing to build solutions using Isode's servers is provided on the Isode AMHS Solutions for AMHS Partners page.
Why Isode?
Solutions based on the Isode AMHS servers offer a number of benefits including:
- Market leading server products.
- ICAO SARPs Conformance. Isode's solution is the first to be conformant to the Extended ATS Message Service, and the first to provide a conformant ATN Directory.
- Full support for the ICAO SARPs architecture, including X.400 P3 and P7 submission and delivery.
- Cross platform support for all components (Linux, Solaris, Windows).
- Fail-over clustering support for all components.
- Directory based configuration management provides flexible client/server configuration.
- Easy to use cross platform APIs for integration of AMHS applications.
