Sensis Corporation Wins ATC Maastricht 2002 Industry Award for Its MDS System

MAASTRICHT, THE NETHERLANDS - February 6, 2002 - Sensis Corporation has been awarded the ATC Maastricht 2002 Industry Award for its Multistatic Dependent Surveillance (MDS)/Multilateration system. The Sensis MDS system utilizes transponder multilateration and automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast (ADS-B) to provide advanced air and surface surveillance. It is designed to increase the safety, capacity, and efficiency of flight operations. The ATC Maastricht Awards are run jointly by Jane's Information Group and CMP International and sponsored by Jane's Airport Review.

Sensis Vice President Ken Tollstam who accepted the award, said "We are proud to be honored with this award recognizing Sensis Corporation's employees hard work and the resulting achievements. We are also grateful to our MDS customers who entrusted the supply of such a critical system to Sensis." On the future of multilateration technology Tollstam added "Just as MDS is now an established technology for surface applications, I fully expect that it will also prove itself as a valuable surveillance tool in additional applications such as wide area surveillance and ADS-B."

The Sensis MDS system is currently installed at some of Europe's busiest airports including London Heathrow in England, Frankfurt International in Germany, and Zurich Airport in Switzerland. Sensis has recently received contracts to supply MDS systems to Charles de Gaulle in France, and Geneva International in Switzerland. Sensis is also the prime contractor on the FAA's Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model -X (ASDE-X) program, integrating transponder multilateration, surface movement radar (SMR), automatic dependent surveillance -broadcast (ADS-B), multi-sensor data fusion and tower displays. The ASDE-X program will bring multilateration to 25 airports in the United States.

Although multilateration's initial application was surface surveillance, the technology is now expanding to include terminal, wide area, and Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) surveillance. These new applications for the technology are being evaluated at Memphis International Airport, the US Navy's Patuxent River Test Range, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Bundaburg region of Australia.

The Sensis MDS system locates and identifies targets by utilizing small sensors on the ground that listen for transponder signals and triangulate them to determine the position of the signal's source. The transponder signals are also encoded with aircraft data which the sensors decode and provide to air traffic controllers. Traditional transponders typically provide aircraft identification and altitude information. Advanced Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) transponders also broadcast latitude, longitude, velocity and heading information - as determined by the on-board avionics and the Global Navigation Satellite System. Reduced power requirements, lack of rotating parts, scalability, and redundancy all make the MDS multilateration system a cost effective alternative, or addition to, traditional radar systems.