Federal Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI)

The Federal Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) is the primary means for FAA's telecommunications services and it forms the basic infrastructure for the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen. It replaces FAA's legacy networks to provide consolidated telecom services for the 5,000 facilities and 30,000 circuits in the National Airspace System with reduced costs and improved bandwidth and security. The FTI network supports National Airspace System (NAS) operations by providing the connectivity required by systems including the Enhanced Traffic management Systems (ETMS), the Standard Terminal Automated Replacement System (STARS), and the Wide Area Augmentation System ( WAAS). In addition, applications like e-mail, Internet, payroll, and other administrative services are on the FTI Mission Support Network. FTI provides an enterprise-wide approach to information security assurance. It meets the latest government standards for information security, and offers improved security services, like encryption.