Mackinac Software

Send weather data from U.S. airports to the world

An Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) measures and collects critical weather data, broadcasts the data in voice format, and transmits the data in digital format.

For all federal U.S. airports, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA):

• Buys and maintains AWOS equipment.
• Transmits the digital data to its National Airspace Data Interchange Network (NADIN), which then disseminates it to many constituencies, including Flight Service Stations, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and commercial outlets such as the Weather Channel.

For non-federal U.S. airports, state, local, and private organizations can buy and maintain their own AWOS equipment; however, reaping the economic and safety benefits of transmitting the digital data to NADIN is difficult because NADIN is a closed X.25 network with carefully controlled access points.

Mackinac Software’s mission: Provide non-federal airports an economical, flexible, secure, and reliable connection between their AWOS equipment and NADIN.

Mission accomplished! Mackinac Software's anyAWOS Weather Nexus:

• Uses Gcom® technology to relay AWOS information to NADIN.
• Passed all required FAA certification tests.
• Connects to NADIN via an FAA-controlled access point in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"The Gcom appliance allows our software to be independent of the underlying protocol, and will allow an easy transition from X.25 to IP when the time comes."

Marilyn Wulfekuhler,
CEO

Network Topology

• PSTN
• Virtual Private Network
• RS-232 X.25 leased line

Gcom Solution

• Gcom Protocol Appliance 2G with TCP/IP, X.25, and Raw Async
• Gcom synchronous serial adapter
• Custom application on anyAWOS Weather Nexus Server created with Gcom's SyncSockets® API