The AMHS Connector is a software package that performs the conversion of AFTN messages to AMHS and vice versa, in an ICAO SARPs compliant way. The AMHS Connector is written in Java and can both run co-located with the AMHS Switch or it can run remotely.

Even though it’s similar to the AFTN/AMHS Gateway, there are several differences between the AMHS Connector and the AFTN/AMHS Gateway:

AMHS ConnectorAFTN/AMHS Gateway
Connects to an AMHS Server using X.400 P3 or X.400 P7Connects to an AMHS Server using X.400 P1
It usually sends and receives on behalf of a single AMHS user account, or small group of AMHS user accountsIt sends and receives on behalf of all kinds of AMHS and AFTN users
It doesn’t generate X.400 Delivery ReportsIt generates X.400 Delivery Reports

The AMHS Connector is ideally suited for AFTN application developers that want to connect their AFTN software to an AMHS network, for example, MET systems, FDP (Flight Data Processing) systems, etc. It allows them to connect via AFTN to AMHS, without having to adapt their program to use X.400 or to convert the AFTN messages through a third party AFTN/AMHS Gateway.

Key features

  • Full ICAO Doc9880 compliance.
  • A Monitoring and Management console to configure and monitor the operation of both ends of the connection
  • Flexible AFTN ↔ AMHS address conversion, using either an ICAO compliant X.500 ATN Directory or the EUROCONTROL AMC Tables with conversion information.
  • Supports both XF and CAAS addressing schemes
  • Supports the Extended ATS Message Handling Service
  • Support for the [IHE] IPM Heading Extensions Functional Group
  • Support of the generation and reception of messages in both Basic Encoding and Extended Encoding
  • When used with XML content, it supports the use of FTBP (File Transfer Bodyparts), to handle message attachments. This can be used, for example, to send and receive METAR, SPECI and TAF messages using the BUFR format.
  • Creation of AMHS messages with IWXXM content complying with the AMHS profile for IWXXM exchange.
  • Creation of Digital NOTAM, Digital FPL, Digital MET, etc, based on user provided content.
  • Support the use of Directory [DIR]
  • Support for Red Hat Clustering
  • HTTP monitoring

Integration with AFTN

The integration with the AMHS Connector with AFTN can be achieved:

  • through the use of the standard Internet Protocol (IP) sockets 
  • by using a shared file system, and then reading and writing messages in configurable directories
  • by reading messages from a database
  • by using IBM MQ for Lido formatted messages

The AMHS Connector can hold several simultaneous connections with applications that want to connect to the AMHS Switch.

X.400 P3 and X.400 P7 Connectivity

The AMHS Connector supports both X.400 P3 and X.400 P7. X.400 protocols are usually operated over TCP/IP using either ITOT (ISO Transport over TCP) or ITOTS (ITOT over SSL), to provide a secure access to the Message Store.  Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported. Typically, X.400 P3 is used for users that send or receive a large number of messages per day, and X.400 P7 is used for more infrequent users.

Availability

The AMHS Connector runs on Windows as a Windows Service (versions supported include 2016 Server, 2019 Server, 2022 Server, 10 and 11), and also on Linux (Redhat 7 and 8, Ubuntu, and other similar Open Source operating systems), as a Unix Service.

Conformance

ICAO Conformance
  • ICAO Doc 9880, Second Edition – 2016
  • ICAO Annex 10, Volume II.
  • Extended ATS Message Handling Services
  • ATS Messaging Management Manual (Eur Doc 021)
  • EUR AMHS Manual, version 16.0 (Eur Doc 020)
X.400 Conformance

The AMHS Connector is conformant to the core ISP requirements for the 1984, 1988, and 1996, 1999 and 2003 versions of X.400. In particular, is also complies with:

  • ISO/IEC ISP 10611-4:2003 / AMH12-MTS Access (P3)
  • ISO/IEC ISP 10611-6: 2003 / AMH13-MS Access (P7)