The technology is old, but it's solid. It's never crashed on us while working. I think the only time they reboot it is at night when traffic is low and they do an update, but it's seemless because there are two systems. They update one and switch us to it, then update the other.
I work in an Air Route Traffic Control Center, not a tower.
If you asked me that a couple of years ago, I would say being able to talk with the pilots, but now the airlines are starting to adopt CPDLC which allows us to send text commands (to climb, turn, etc) rather than relying on voice communication. Not everyone has it though.
ERAM is multichannel, which is why we do the failover between A-channel and B-channel during APL and OS CUTO. If I remember the SSMs right, we do the update on the B-channel first and once it has been approved by TechOps, A-channel is then updated.
Everything is built to provide a fallback in cause of failure, including the OS updates when they come in.
How are the interstitial ads handled in an OS such as this? Is the ad running time factored into the control system on the kernel level? Do the operators have a realtime safe button press to "skip ad" in high traffic situations?
When privatization is in the news, we like to joke, "I have a Venmo username to send $20 for a practice approach, advise when ready to copy."
Or, "Airlines123, ten miles from POINT, fly heading 360 until established on the localizer, cleared ILS Runway 1 approach. This approach brought to you by <advertiser>."
I work in an Air Route Traffic Control Center, not a tower.
If you asked me that a couple of years ago, I would say being able to talk with the pilots, but now the airlines are starting to adopt CPDLC which allows us to send text commands (to climb, turn, etc) rather than relying on voice communication. Not everyone has it though.