ACARS Network

Hoppie Home ACARS Home ACARS Forum For Planes For ATC Centers For Dispatch Network Server Mini Server Documentation Message Log Send Message

The ACARS Network is a Web application that enables people with an ACARS client to send each other messages via the ACARS protocol. This message relay service is asynchronous (not in real time, i.e., both parties do not have to be online at the same time) and not via the VATSIM/IVAO network. This opens up the possibility to use dedicated ACARS clients instead of the ATC/plane-oriented VATSIM/IVAO system. For virtual airline operations, this might get interesting. What server URL do I need for ACARS? If you want to point your ACARS software at the server, either use the program default (blank the line) or set it as: http://www.hoppie.nl/acars/system/connect.html Despite the name of the URL, it is not a HTML file that you will get back, so there is little point in using a web browser to look at it. For more information, look at the protocol docs. Want to run your own server? The current system is centered around one single network ACARS exchange that happens to run on my own server. Sometimes you don't have internet access but you need to run ACARS on a closed LAN, or a single computer for demonstrations. For these applications, the ACARS Mini Server has been developed. If you really want to run your own system on the internet, you could run the Mini Server on an internet host. If you want the Apache/PHP5/PostgreSQL-based "real" server, you have to first convince me what that would add compared to the single-server approach. If you set up your own dispatch network using your own callsigns, there is nothing that will disturb it. And I am open to suggestions which other message types the system should support. In the very unlikely case that my server gets overloaded, we have another problem to solve, and go to clustered systems. That is for the far future. My current server is pretty powerful and hosted by a company that specialises in High-Availability Solutions. Should be okay. Loose Remarks The message queue is maintained for 24 hours. Within that period of time, planes and ground stations can drop by and fetch the messages that are intended for them. Once fetched (relayed), the messages just sit here for log purposes. You do not need to connect to the VATSIM/IVAO network, but obviously need to have Internet access for this to work.