ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- The Base Communications and Information Technology Services contractor at Arnold Air Force Base was previously tasked with solving the disconnect between current technology and the aging telecommunications system in place at the installation.
After 25 months of planning and execution, the BCITS team successfully answered this call.
In August 2025, the final pieces of new Voice over Internet Protocol network infrastructure and equipment were installed signaling the completion of a significant telephone system upgrade at Arnold, headquarters of Arnold Engineering Development Complex.
“This project was a huge undertaking,” said Christian Dale, Arnold AFB Communications Operations Chief. “The magnitude was such that it had been attempted unsuccessfully two times before. It encompassed every phone in every building, the multiple core systems that support it and a high-availability backup system for redundancy, which the base did not previously have.”
The purpose of the undertaking was to design and implement a new digital VoIP core system and migrate existing analog wire phone connections to the digital VoIP data infrastructure at Arnold. Through the effort, Abacus Technology Corporation, the BCITS contractor at Arnold, replaced the existing Nortel CS1000 telecommunications system in place for years at the installation with the Avaya Call Manager 10.2 system.
“Abacus Technology was successful in solving a longstanding technical problem that has plagued AEDC for nearly a decade,” said Mike Cullen, Arnold AFB BCITS VoIP project manager. “The successful completion of the project improves the safety, security and enhances the operational capability of the AEDC test mission.”
VoIP is a technology that allows users to make voice calls using a broadband internet connection rather than a regular, or otherwise referred to as an analog, phone line, per the Federal Communication Commission. VoIP services convert the user’s voice into a digital signal that travels over the internet. If a VoIP user is calling a regular phone number, the signal is converted to a regular telephone signal before reaching its destination.
“Abacus Technology is proud to be the first IT contract at AEDC to successfully field the new Avaya CM 10.2 VoIP system and enhance the test mission and Air Force operational capability,” Cullen said. “The principal reason why Abacus Technology Corporation was successful is due to the deliberate planning and scoping phase that was funded by the government sponsor and occurred in earnest beginning in 2023.”
The Arnold Engineering Development Complex Test and Base Communications Branch, the government project sponsor of the phone system upgrade, in 2023 awarded $2.38 million to Abacus to study, plan, engineer and execute the VoIP project.
The justification for the AEDC VoIP modernization project, Cullen added, is four-fold. First, its completion should help minimize service disruption to Arnold phone users. Secondly, the modernization will reduce system compatibility issues. It will also minimize sustainment costs. Lastly, the project will enhance telephone features for Arnold emergency dispatch center, police, fire and EMS end users.
Initial systems engineering scope planning and technical requirements analysis were completed in late 2023. Planning and execution phases occurred throughout 2023 and 2024 with initial hardware upgrades completed in early 2024.
The installation of VoIP phones across Arnold AFB began in the second half of 2024. During this process, the previous Nortel phones were collected and replaced with new Avaya VoIP telephone sets.
“With the completion of the project, Arnold Air Force Base is one of the few bases in the Air Force that is fully operational on a VoIP system per the 2018 [Defense Information Systems Agency] mandate,” Dale said.
Another component of the project was the installation of several systems within the Arnold AFB emergency dispatch center. This included Enhanced 911 and Public Safety Answering Point infrastructure. New workstations were also installed in the dispatch center for technology integration and enhanced ergonomics.
“Military, civilian and contractor personnel assigned to spaces with Avaya land line phones have improved phone connectivity capability,” Cullen said. “The AEDC police, fire, EMS and [Base Defense Operations Center] users now have an enhanced capability for responding to emergencies across the AEDC complex.”
Cullen added the new system has a more “robust digital capability in line with 21st century technology.”
“The AEDC VoIP project represents one of the only cases in which an Avaya Call Manager 10.2 and Public Service Answering Point hardware and software was implemented within the Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network,” he said. “This represents a significant technical achievement for AEDC.”
The new digital phone switch network installed as part of the project allows the new phones to connect to the network over an Internet Protocol connection via assigned PCs and laptops.
“The connections are much more reliable in terms of audio and data signal strength,” Cullen said.
For decades, the previous Nortel CS1000 core system was the primary Public Switched Telephone Network that connected each one of the phones assigned to each Arnold AFB end user and connected phone calls within the installation as well as off-base calls.
“The CS1000 was installed 35 years ago and hasn’t been supported by the vendor for quite some time,” Dale said. “Parts would have to be bought through a vendor that refurbishes them, if they even had them. Any time it lost power, took a lightning strike or was even turned off properly, Arnold was at risk of a total loss of telephone services with no alternative solution.”
The upgrade was prompted by advancements in technology since the previous system was installed.
“PSTN is a legacy system and is now obsolete and has been phased out in the United States,” Cullen said.
Completion of the upgrade was around a decade in the making. Cullen said there were several instantiations of the VoIP project in previous years, but the project failed to materialize.
“There were at least two contracts awarded to previous IT contracts at AEDC in prior years,” he said. “These efforts were largely unsuccessful and incomplete for a number of reasons.”
The new Avaya system footprint, both in terms of the physical hardware and its pull on the electrical power grid, is smaller than that of the previous system, Cullen said.
“The new system is industry standard technology used in many other enterprises across the globe,” he said. “The completion of this project levels up AEDC to the 21st century of digital VoIP telephone technology.”
The Nortel system hardware may be decommissioned and old switch hardware found in various buildings across Arnold may be removed sometime in 2026 depending on government authorization, Cullen said.
There also exists the possibility that the new network could be expanded and additional upgrades completed down the line.
“The technical requirements and scoping of such work is to be determined by the Test and Base Communications Branch at some future date,” Cullen said.