Iridium has signed a new five-year commercial contract with L3Harris Technologies for the Iridium Satellite Time and Location (STL) service. Under the terms of the agreement, Iridium will provide the STL service to more than three dozen L3Harris-operated communications network backbone nodes and a similar number of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facilities throughout the USA. L3Harris owns and operates a private nationwide network for the FAA, providing voice, data and video communications for the National Airspace System operations and mission support functions.
Timing synchronization is essential within the L3Harris communications network, especially since it supports several critical infrastructure applications. The Iridium STL service is part of the overall network timing architecture that removes dependencies on GPS as a primary timing source.
Compact devices provided by Adtran’s Oscilloquartz division that receive Iridium STL signals are also included in the solution for L3Harris. This equipment can be integrated into the network to help fulfill network timing synchronization requirements nationwide.
In related news, the FAA recently announced it would give a US$26.6m grant to Denver International Airport (DEN) to fund a portion of the baggage handling system (BHS) modernization project, which is designed to increase capacity and improve energy efficiency. Click here to read the full story.