Specialty Engineering

ATC has the broad and deep understanding of the National Airspace System (NAS) architecture and operation that can only come from providing 25 years of support to the FAA, including: NAS system engineering; procurement support to the en route, terminal, and tower automation domains; and over fifteen years of development and evaluation of runway safety systems.

ATC developed the FAA's Handbook for Reliability, Maintainability, and Availability (FAA HDBK 006A). Its purpose is to assist Business Unit System Engineers in developing requirements for new systems that meet the reliability, maintainability, and availability (RMA) requirements set out in the FAA's standards for system requirements (NAS-SR-1000).

Developing the handbook required us to familiarize ourselves with the unique attributes of several of the NAS functions and their respective organizations. For example, we worked with the Airways Facilities organization to understand their functions and responsibilities and actually based our RMA process on a concept from their National Airspace Performance Reporting System (NAPRS). We also adapted our RMA processes to the unique requirements of the Navigation and Communication organizations and the Power Systems Organization and systems, a critical element in the RMA attributes of any high-reliability system.

Through this work and our work on the architecture of the NAS Infrastructure Management System, we have gained an understanding of the NAS Architecture itself.