> “This is a clear example of the FAA’s outdated infrastructure and underscores the urgent need to modernize our air traffic control systems,” the agency said in its Sept. 20 update. “Moving from aging, analog systems to more resilient, digital technology, is critical to maintaining the reliability and resiliency of the national airspace system.”
Umm, what? How is a fiber cut an "aging, analog system"? They even admitted that there was supposed to be redundancy in place but the system did not work.
fishgoesblub•2h ago
Oh you know, analog telephone wires, digital fibre, they're both wire shaped so they're the same.
imoverclocked•20m ago
It's not the fiber that's the problem. I mean, it is ... but that's not the analog part we are talking about.
ATC communications are still over two-way radio. It's like walkie-talkies but on aviation bands instead of citizen bands. There are digital communications in some cases but it's definitely not the baseline.
pdonner•2h ago
So far it appears the news is reporting a cyber attack in Europe that is affecting European boarding. The RADAR/RADIO (TRACON) thing in Texas and other major airports in the US. A cyber attack on Collins Aerospace and Frontier. And some blame pointing at L3Harris for inadequate failure recovery. Sounds like no one has a clue. I wonder if any of our security apparatus is still functioning enough to provide support to find the source of the problem.
JumpCrisscross•2h ago
If only we had “a system that had no centralized switches and could operate even if many of its links and switching nodes had been destroyed” [1].
toomuchtodo•2h ago
https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/cut-cables-trigger-da...
ranger_danger•2h ago
Umm, what? How is a fiber cut an "aging, analog system"? They even admitted that there was supposed to be redundancy in place but the system did not work.
fishgoesblub•2h ago
imoverclocked•20m ago
ATC communications are still over two-way radio. It's like walkie-talkies but on aviation bands instead of citizen bands. There are digital communications in some cases but it's definitely not the baseline.