Iridium Communications, a provider of global voice and data satellite communications, has signed a new five-year commercial contract with L3Harris Technologies. This agreement entails the provision of the Iridium® Satellite Time and Location (STL) service to over three dozen L3Harris-operated communications network backbone nodes and an equivalent number of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) facilities across the United States.
L3Harris, responsible for operating a private nationwide network for the FAA, facilitates voice, data and video communications for national airspace system operations and mission support functions. Given the critical nature of timing synchronisation within the L3Harris communications network, particularly for supporting various critical infrastructure applications, the Iridium STL service plays a pivotal role in the overall network timing architecture by eliminating dependencies on GPS as the primary timing source.
The solution for L3Harris includes compact devices provided by Adtran’s Oscilloquartz division, designed to receive Iridium STL signals. These high-performance devices seamlessly integrate into the network, effectively meeting nationwide network timing synchronization requirements.
“With Iridium STL, data centre managers can count on dependable timing synchronisation throughout their facilities,” said Christina Riley, Vice President and General Manager, Commercial Resilient Time and Location, Iridium. “STL solutions offer cost-effective resiliency in critical infrastructure environments where GPS is unreliable or unavailable, so L3Harris and the FAA can benefit from uninterrupted, high-performance operations.”
