Efficient utilization of HW and SW systems in enterprise architecture

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiated the mission to transition Traffic Management Advisor (TMA, also referred to as the “legacy” system) into a new system. The legacy system provided computer automation to enhance the arrival/departure throughput and efficiency of air traffic operations in extended terminal airspace surrounding major airports, and in en-route airspace. The resulting system re-architecture enhancement upgrades the system architecture to: reduce cost of ownership; reduce the logistical footprint; maintain compatibility of hardware and software; comply with system performance requirements; and to increase the flexibility of workstations.The solution proposed, developed, implemented and now in deployment the Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) System. This system consolidated the servers resulting in a server footprint reduction of 70%. This approach had the lowest risk to the system from a hardware change perspective; however, it did have some inherent limitations and risks. The software needed to be tweaked to ensure performance was met on the consolidated server, which was more difficult as the number of airports adapted expanded, as more and more functionality is added to the system, and as additional subsystems are created outside of the standard TBFM software (i.e. SOA Enterprise Bus). Additionally, the new hardware must be installed at each site in a new rack, spares for those servers need to be allocated both locally and at the nationwide depot, and any future expansion hardware would need to be installed at each site.