Traffic Control Systems

Gardermoen Airport Oslo control tower

Photo: Trond Isaksen, Oslo Airport

Although our software products are used in many areas, traffic control (TC) is one main application area.

Traffic control systems demand special requirements on all components.

As a TC system serves the security of human beings the most important requirements are reliability and high availability.

Mainly the system integrator benefits from secondary qualities like flexibility, transparency, and longevity.

All of our products fulfil these requirements by design.

They are successfully used on all stages of the TC system's life cycle, as long as the X Window System is involved.

Research

Research is the starting point: projecting future developments and making them real by prototyping.

The software X-META-X, our swiss army knife, drives the X Window System to its limits. It totally breaks and lets newly define the correspondence between application and display.

For output devices only the simpler product X-BIG-X and X-META-X with the VARIO option help to simulate arbitrary display formats and resolutions. They combine, translate, scale, and rotate screen contents.

The future user of the system is very important: X-POSE-X-RECORD totally records and stores user interactions and output for simultaneous or later playback and precise analysis.

Development

Every software developer needs screen estate: X-BIG-X combines the screens of a workstation to a contiguous display area.

New software has to be tested continuously regarding correctness and performance: X-POSE-X-RECORD and X-POSE-X-PLAY provide for comprehensible regression tests without modification of the test object.

Implementation, Operation and Maintenance

Status display and remote control are the main tasks of a TC system.

Lenzhard SCADA System

Photo: ABB Schweiz AG

Display - from abstract overview down to the smallest detail - requires new, flexible and dynamic solutions. X-BIG-X is used to build large display areas from smaller units. The additional functionalities of X-META-X, especially dynamic configuration, make it possible to define for each situation a perfectly matching display configuration. This can be done during run-time without disturbing the applications.

Thus X-BIG-X and X-META-X are often used to substitute inflexible hardware solutions or to integrate different output devices.

On the control side incompatibilities are usual, too.

X-CONTROL-X provides the most simple method of integrating different UNIX systems. The software allows to operate multiple workstations with only one set of input devices (e.g. keyboard and mouse) in a very intuitive and safe way. No need to push switches, simply crossing the screen border with the mouse pointer is enough to go to an alternative workstation.

If the other workstation is remote, the controller needs to see the remote screen contents on his workstation: no problem for X-META-X or X-POSE-X-RECORD and X-POSE-X-PLAY.

Canadian Naval Combat Operator Trainer

Photo: MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.

The best TC system is not useful with suboptimal trained staff. Our POSE technology is used to teach personnel and furthermore to assure quality during operation of the TC system, including the complete surveillance of all input and output.

X-META-X or X-POSE-X-RECORD and X-POSE-X-PLAY may also be used for remote assistance on the user's screen.

Enhancement

A TC system requires continuous development without disturbing its operation. The flexibility and transparency of our products provide for easy iterative improvement of the total system.

We, too, continuously adapt our software to new requirements and environments. In close cooperation with our clients we develop functional enhancements, from the very quickly implemented prototype to the generally available product option.

Marketing and Sales

X-META-X or X-POSE-X-RECORD can be used to produce product presentations supporting the sales force.

X-POSE-X-PLAY can play the presentation or generate videos, screen dumps, or slides.