The concept of remote maintenance monitoring and its computer architecture

The concept of remote maintenance monitoring (RMM) was developed and introduced in industrial engineering as a means to measure the performance. This concept has been studied, evaluated, implemented and deployed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The application of RMM has improved the maintenance and performance of ground-based navigational aids, weather-related systems, radar surveillance and environmental control systems. Hundreds of FAA air traffic control (ATC) facilities, airports and remote monitoring stations throughout the country employ some sort of RMM. Reliability, suitability, and longevity of navigational aids, weather processors, and surveillance systems have improved due to the functionalities RMM systems provide. Site-specific needs of some of these ATC facilities are due to geographical location and the surrounding environment. RMM computer architecture and computer communication methods are discussed and analyzed. This discussion centers on a successfully deployed RMM sub-system for a weather-related system, an environmentally controlled monitoring system and a ground-based surveillance system. In the end, a sincere attempt is made to demonstrate the success of RMM technology implementation, showcase the benefits and progress towards a versatile open systems approach and present the economic feasibility of this technology with a view towards the future.