LVNL ensures the safe and efficient handling of air traffic within Dutch airspace. From control towers at Schiphol, Eelde, Beek, Rotterdam, and Lelystad airports, LVNL air traffic controllers guide departing and approaching aircraft in the immediate vicinity of the airports. Aircraft that are arriving and departing further away are managed from a large radar control room at Schiphol-East. The air traffic management system used in this radar room is currently being renewed.

“Our existing system provides all the support we need, but from a technological perspective, we have reached the limits of further innovation. That is why we are transitioning to iCAS in 2023/2024. This new system is being developed on behalf of a consortium of multiple air navigation service providers, as part of European harmonisation,” says Arthur Vriend, Team Leader at LVNL’s iCAS department.

iCAS requires a suitable environment to operate. Arthur explains: “That’s why we are setting up an entirely new, standardised infrastructure.” Since 2016, Willem Jellema, Senior Infrastructure Specialist at Conclusion Xforce, has been contributing to this initiative.

LVNL opted for an infrastructure architecture based on the Development, Test, Acceptance, and Production principle (DTAP), with Education as a fifth stage.

Arthur explains: “Currently, we operate three environments: one for production, one for development and testing, and one for education. It becomes quite complex to allocate sufficient time and resources for all development, testing, and acceptance activities, especially since we also work with external developers. In the new setup, each stage will have its own dedicated environment.”

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is used as the operating system for the various components of the infrastructure. Willem explains: “RHEL is highly stable and scalable, and Red Hat is one of the leading players in the market. LVNL can rely on long-term support and updates, ensuring that the platform remains stable well into the future. That’s essential for a mission-critical system like this.” The applications that exchange data within iCAS, such as radar and weather information systems, will also run in a standardised way on RHEL. Shared infrastructure services, including monitoring, logging, and backup solutions, further simplify the management of the environment.

To maximise availability, LVNL uses virtualisation for components within the education system, development environment, and testing environment. “With VMware, multiple virtual servers can run on our physical servers, allowing us to use capacity much more efficiently. Scaling up is also straightforward,” Willem adds.

The workstations of air traffic controllers will also change. In the new environment, they will use large ultra high-definition (4K) screens with a grid layout for each application. This gives them a complete overview of all relevant information at a glance.