Overview

A software development and support company and longtime customer of our sync serial products reached out to Sealevel after being awarded a contract by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The contract is part of the FAA’s Enterprise Network Services (FENS) program, a broad effort aimed at developing and deploying a secure network to support all of the FAA’s mission critical applications across the National Airspace System, which also includes providing Air Traffic Management to more than 45,000 flights and 2.9 million airline passengers in the US. Specifically, the longtime customer is tasked with the development of a system that will act as a real-time storage bank of flight radar data across the country.

Beyond the applications specifics, noted below, the customer had several major organizational requirements: the solution must be American made, it needed to meet a wide variety of compliance certifications, and it must have long-term availability. Based on the longstanding relationship and a proven track record, the customer approached Sealevel to develop the hardware platform to go along with their software.

Air traffic control display screen
The contract is part of the FAA’s Enterprise Network Services (FENS) program, a broad effort aimed at developing and deploying a secure network to support all of the FAA’s mission critical applications across the National Airspace System, which also includes providing Air Traffic Management to more than 45,000 flights and 2.9 million airline passengers in the US.

The Challenges

  • American Made – The Buy American Preferences require that all steel and manufactured goods used in FAA funded projects be produced in the United States.
  • Reliability –The FAA systems support real-time, safety-critical operations where failure can jeopardize lives and disrupt national transportation infrastructure – requiring the confidence that a system, subsystem, unit, or part will perform its intended function for a specified interval under certain operational and environmental conditions.
  • Ease of Integration – The final system will be deployed at airports and air bases across the US and must be able to be deployed into a variety of different existing infrastructures and physical environments, each with unique configurations and regulatory requirements.
  • Long-Term Availability – All FAA systems – including the FENS program – have longer system lifecycles than many other industries. Whereas a consumer grade computer may have a lifecycle of 3-7 years, FAA systems have 10 to 30+ year lifecycle requirements. There are several reasons for this longer lifecycle including lengthy certification processes, the rigor and depth of which require the process begins anew anytime a new component is added.

A nationwide system acting as a real-time storage bank of flight radar data requires a large number of synchronous serial connections. Previously, the customer has utilized Sealevel sync serial cards, but they were often paired with an off-the-shelf computer. However, with the scale and scope of the FENS program, the customer approached Sealevel with a request to develop a custom, purpose-built computer that incorporated all of the synchronous serial I/O required.

front and back view of Sealevel 1U computer for FAA
After studying the requirements and the application, Sealevel developed a custom computer which met all of their needs, in a single 1U rackmount enclosure.

The Solution

After studying the requirements and the application, Sealevel developed a custom computer that incorporated their needs into a single 1U rackmount enclosure. The custom computer addressed all of the company’s pain points.

  • Sealevel is based in Liberty, South Carolina and design, engineer, manufacture, test, certify, and support every commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and custom embedded computing system and I/O solution. Sealevel manufacturing facility is ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certified.
  • By utilizing a purpose-built custom computer system, the company is able to standardize their installation processes, eliminating any problem of system/component compatibility.
  • Sealevel is an AS9100D certified manufacturer, meaning that the quality management system in place meets or exceeds the stringent expectations of the aerospace and defense industries. On top of that, all Sealevel manufactured I/O products carry a Lifetime Warranty.
  • Further, Sealevel provides a long-term availability guarantee, and is committed to manufacturing the computers for the life of the company’s programs across public safety and security.

Ultimately, Sealevel developed a computer containing:

  • Quad-core processor with 1.8 GHz core
  • 16GB RAM
  • (16x) Synchronous Serial Ports
  • (2x) RS-232/485 DB9 Ports
  • (4x) Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • (2x) USB 3.0 ports
  • (5x) USB 2.0 ports
  • (1x) 512GB MLC SSD Storage
  • (1x) DisplayPort video Output
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