February 2015
12
S
afety
& S
ecurity
Success story about a configurable
system for air traffic controllers
By Ansgar Hein,
ies
Security, availability and efficiency
have emerged as the top
requirements imposed
on embedded computing projects.
Applying a combination of advanced
technology and iesy™
Project Management
made a significant contribution
to improving flight safety at
Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS).
Quality is one of the top aspects that cus-
tomers require when it comes to product and
service decisions, especially for solutions
where matters of life and death are involved.
In these cases a high demand on the quality
turns into a quality requirement, which can
be at best expressed in international standards,
or perceived as part of the business culture of
a company. Therefore, it is no surprise that the
Chairman of the Board of DFS Deutsche Flug-
sicherung GmbH, Prof. Klaus-Dieter Scheurle
clarifies its own demands accordingly: “Safety,
punctuality and efficiency are a must for our
company.” All people, systems, processes and
suppliers must submit to this obligation.
The customer requirements were correspond-
ingly high for the development of the next gen-
eration of the Position Logging system (PoLo),
which is used throughout all air traffic control-
ler workstations at DFS and without which no
other systemcan be used. One of themain tasks
of PoLo is to sign on and off employees at their
workstations as well as to log and record their
activities, monitor the strict rules on working
hours and responsibilities and to ensure com-
pliance. For example, it must be ensured that
only users authenticated for a specific task are
allowed to sign on at that working space and
at the same time it must be ensured that an
employee has not simultaneously logged on to
another air traffic control workstation. Simply
put, PoLo is a freely configurable system for
air traffic controllers to electronically log their
activities where employees can easily sign on
and off using their corporate ID cards. In the
background, the permissions are automatically
checked and all the activities are recorded. A
supervisor may view all the information in real
time just at a glance. All in all the Position Log-
ging system contributes significantly to a par-
ticularly high degree of safety in air traffic and
is an integral part of a modern and efficient air
traffic control where intelligent systems mini-
mize the workload of air traffic controllers and
help ensure a smooth workflow in a complex
environment.
For the new development of PoLo devices
for DFS with prototyping and subsequent
production, the project was put out to tender
across Europe and tied to a three-year frame-
work agreement. While the entire tendering
process took about 12 months until the award
of the contract, just six months were provided
for the development and delivery of the new
PoLo generation. A short period of time if
you take into account the high requirements
of security, availability, and efficiency that
were required by DFS. As is the case with the
technical requirements, the tendering was
focussed on. Just the list of required hardware
components and dimensions in conjunction
with the software requirements posed a chal-
lenge. That’s the kind of tasks ies is looking for
which triumphed ahead of numerous compet-
itors in securing the contract. The company
has the necessary expertise across all stages,
ranging from planning through development
to production and support, to inspire when it
comes to safety, availability and efficiency.
The enthusiasm has rubbed off on the client,
as ies knows from the personal feedback of
the responsible project leader at DFS. But
what is behind the success of the project? A
glimpse behind the scenes of ies reveals that
it is primarily optimum processes in conjunc-
tion with broad know-how and a consistent
quality management, which ensure perfection
down to the very detail. At ies this process
is called iesy™ Project Management and is a
synonym for highest quality combined with
short project duration. It has its start in the
bidding phase, where all requests that derive
from the specifications are being compressed
and adequately specified. As a result, the bid-
ding phase results not only in pure figures, but
a tangible idea for the implementation pro-
cess, including first 3D renderings of the elec-
tronic modules or the future solution. This
also applies to technical solutions, such as the
optical sensor to activate the RFID card reader,
which elegantly integrates into the design of
the housing. Due to the high level of detail in
the proposal phase, tangible solutions can be
Figure 1. Position Logging (PoLo) ensures
safety through distinct authentication and
seamless monitoring of all air traffic control
activities. (source: ies)
