Vizada Introduces Seamless IP Mobility with AviLink

16 March 2011

Vizada, and ARINC collaborated last week to validate AviLink performance in an airborne environment. AviLink is a custom-designed capability that provides fully managed, automated handovers between Ku and L-band coverage areas for high-demand, mission-critical applications in flight, on land or at sea.

The capability was first developed to meet the needs of a U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contract in 2010 and is now being offered to additional military, government and commercial customers.

Testing was performed on the ground and in rain darkened skies using commercial Ku-band capacity on the SES World Skies AMC-3 satellite with the iDirect Government Technologies (iGT) e8350 DVB/S2 compliant modem and a 17-inch airborne antenna mounted on a Sierra Nevada Corporation provided King Air 300 aircraft. In addition to confirming the system’s ability to peak IP data rates in excess of 2 Mbps off the aircraft, AviLink intelligence was used to demonstrate its ability to concurrently stream high-quality color and IR video to the ground while passengers onboard watched streaming video, completed toll quality voice calls, downloaded multi-megabyte files and sent and received emails through their corporate VPNs. These flight trials verified AviLink’s ability to provide continuous communications from gate to gate, at speeds up to 330 kTAS and during aggressive aircraft maneuvers with up to 60 degree banks.

“Vizada’s partners and their customers are demanding more reliable, higher throughput services,” said Bob Baker, CEO of Vizada Americas. “AviLink provides our customers with the performance and flexibility they need to meet their mission critical requirements. This is the most recent example of how Vizada is evolving its portfolio.”

AviLink is a new capability that allows customers to maintain connectivity over much larger geographical areas than with traditional SATCOM solutions. Its patented IP Mobility delivers global, always-on, Beyond-Line-of-Sight (BLOS) broadband connectivity. IP sessions, phone calls and video streams are maintained as customers move between Ku and L-band coverage areas. AviLink also delivers access to secure gateways such as the DOD’s SIPRNet and NIPRNet, enabled with FIPS compliant components. The service relies on Vizada’s iDirect-enabled teleport infrastructure and the ubiquitous, MPLS-enabled ARINC Global

Network.

“AviLink addresses the two things our customers need most—secure broadband communications and constant coverage,” said Lorne Caddick, VP for Advanced System Engineering, ARINC. “With our combined expertise and history, ARINC and Vizada deliver a powerful capability that public and private sector organizations can count on to see them through their most important missions.”