F452 - Case Study: Air traffic control.

12/12/2014;

"Titsup flight plan mainframe borks UK air traffic control." - 'The Register'

The (Air Traffic Control) ATC system uses dual feeds of data. Incorrect flight plan data first affected the main sever and then was passed to the back up which created 'backover' which causes a complete shutdown.

With 50 different systems with 4 million lines of code, it can be a little tricky to find the bug. The main problem being that it has difficult to keep it updated.

The contingency in place; two parallel systems. One with a flight plan for expected flight data. The other contains radar data of the actual flight.  This is fed to the controller to check if they are deviating from the flight plan. 

We can learn:

• We should continually invest in updating software.
• Validation is critical in using real time systems.
• Use an isolated backup (that you can sever links to and from).
• Consolidate systems instead of 50 discrete systems.
• Hire experienced staff.

How to make a system for dummies:

Tools:

• IDE
• Debugger.
• Source control.
• Phased testing.
• Pilot testing.
• Parallel testing.
• Automated testing (eg: AutoIt)