International Communications Group (ICG), of Newport News, Va., has completion of testing and receipt of Iridium Certified Equipment (ICE) designation for its NxtLink ICS-220A Iridium Communications System. The approval acknowledges that the ICS-220A has successfully fulfilled the requirements and functionality specified by Iridium for interfacing with its on-orbit satellite constellation.
Testing was performed at Iridium’s Service Management Test, Analysis and Development (SMATD) laboratory at the company’s Technical Support Center (TSC) in Chandler, Ariz., in May. Both Key Performance Indicator (KPI) tests for voice and data services were completed with baseline Iridium Satellite Unit (ISU) tests run in parallel for performance comparisons.
“ICG’s ICS-220A provides reliable, global, satellite-based connectivity to business and commercial aircraft operators for their voice and data link communications in both the cabin and on the flight deck,” said Darren Emery, ICG’s Vice President, Product & Customer Services. “Qualification of the ICS-220A to Iridium’s benchmarks for operational performance demonstrates our continued commitment to ensuring we develop a stable and relevant product for use not only within the cabin but more critically within the flight deck for FANS Over Iridium (FOI) and cockpit voice communications,” he added.
The ICS-220A is a three-transceiver device, which combines dual LBTs providing two channels of global voice with a Short Burst Data (SBD) modem dedicated to data link services. The system supports Future Air Navigation System (FANS-1/A), Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Contract (ADS-C) messaging, as well as Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) requirements. It operates with ICG’s new external CIM (Configuration Identification Module) which contains the Iridium SIM cards as well as the system configuration information, making it a true Line Replaceable Unit.