sdr-enthusiasts/acars_router

acars_router receives, validates, deduplicates, modifies and routes ACARS and VDLM2 JSON messages.

Example Feeder docker-compose.yml

version: "3.8"

volumes:
  - acarshub_run

services:
    acarshub:
    image: ghcr.io/sdr-enthusiasts/docker-acarshub:latest
    tty: true
    container_name: acarshub
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    environment:
      - ENABLE_VDLM=EXTERNAL
      - ENABLE_ACARS=EXTERNAL
      - FEED=true
      - IATA_OVERRIDE=UP|UPS|United Parcel Service;GS|FTH|Mountain Aviation (Foothills);GS|EJA|ExecJet
      - ENABLE_ADSB=true
      - ADSB_LAT=${FEEDER_LAT}
      - ADSB_LON=${FEEDER_LON}
      - ADSB_URL=${ACARS_TAR_HOST}
    volumes:
      - "acars_run:/run/acars"
    tmpfs:
      - /database:exec,size=64M
      - /run:exec,size=64M
      - /var/log

  acars_router:
    image: ghcr.io/sdr-enthusiasts/acars_router:latest
    tty: true
    container_name: acars_router
    restart: always
    environment:
      - TZ=${FEEDER_TZ}
      - AR_ENABLE_DEDUPE=true
      - AR_SEND_UDP_ACARS=acarshub:5550;feed.airframes.io:5550
      - AR_SEND_UDP_VDLM2=acarshub:5555
      - AR_SEND_TCP_VDLM2=feed.airframes.io:5553
      - AR_SEND_TCP_HFDL=feed.airframes.io:5556
      - AR_RECV_ZMQ_VDLM2=dumpvdl2:45555
    tmpfs:
      - /run:exec,size=64M
      - /var/log

Change the GAIN, FREQUENCIES, SERIAL, TZ, ADSB_LAT, ADSB_LON and AR_OVERRIDE_STATION_NAME to suit your environment.

With the above deployment:

• JSON messages generated by acarsdec will be sent to acars_router via UDP.
• acars_router will connect to dumpvdl2 via TCP/ZMQ and receive JSON messages.
• acars_router will set your station ID on all messages.
• acars_router will then output to acarshub.

Ports

All ports are configurable. By default, the following ports will be used:

Port	Protocol	Description
5550	UDP	ACARS injest. Clients will send acars data to this port via UDP.
5550	TCP	ACARS injest. Clients will send acars data to this port via TCP.
5555	UDP	VDLM2 injest. Clients will send VDLM2 data to this port via UDP.
5555	TCP	VDLM2 injest. Clients will send VDLM2 data to this port via TCP.
5556	UDP	HFDL injest. Clients will send HFDL data to this port via UDP.
5556	TCP	HFDL injest. Clients will send HFDL data to this port via TCP.
15550	TCP	ACARS server. Can be used for other clients to connect and get messages
15555	TCP	VDLM2 server. Can be used for other clients to connect and get messages
15556	TCP	HFDL server. Can be used for other clients to connect and get messages
35550	ZMQ	ACARS injest. Clients will connect to this port and send acars messages over ZMQ
35555	ZMQ	VDLM2 injest. Clients will connect to this port and send VDLM2 messages over ZMQ
35556	ZMQ	HFDL injest. Clients will connect to this port and send HFDL messages over ZMQ
45550	ZMQ	ACARS server. Can be used for other ZMQ clients to connect and get messages
45555	ZMQ	VDLM2 server. Can be used for other ZMQ clients to connect and get messages
45556	ZMQ	HFDL server. Can be used for other ZMQ clients to connect and get messages

If you want any port(s) to be exposed outside of the docker network, please be sure to append them to the ports section of the docker-compose.yml file.

Environment Variables

All env variables with SEND or RECV in them can have multiple destinations. Each destination should be separated by a ;. For example, SEND_UDP_ACARS=acarshub:5550;acarshub2:5550 will send UDP ACARS messages to both acarshub and acarshub2.

The nomenclature for the environment variables is as follows:

Nomenclature used in variable naming

Input/Inbound data

• Receiver: ACARS router will connect out to a remote host and receive data from it. (TCP/ZMQ)
• Listener: ACARS router will listen on a port for incoming data (UDP) or incoming connection based on socket type (TCP/ZMQ)

Output/Outbound data

• Sender: ACARS router will connect out to a remote host and send data to it. (TCP/ZMQ)
• Server: ACARS router will send data to a remote host (UDP) or listen for incoming connection (TCP/ZMQ) and send data to it.

Outbound data

Env Variable	Command Line Switch	Default	Description
AR_SEND_UDP_ACARS	--send-udp-acars	unset	UDP host:port to send ACARS messages to
AR_SEND_UDP_VDLM2	--send-udp-vdlm2	unset	UDP host:port to send VDLM2 messages to
AR_SEND_UDP_HFDL	--send-udp-hfdl	unset	UDP host:port to send HFDL messages to
AR_SEND_TCP_ACARS	--send-tcp-acars	unset	TCP host:port to send ACARS messages to
AR_SEND_TCP_VDLM2	--send-tcp-vdlm2	unset	TCP host:port to send VDLM2 messages to
AR_SEND_TCP_HFDL	--send-tcp-hfdl	unset	TCP host:port to send HFDL messages to
AR_SERVE_TCP_ACARS	--serve-tcp-acars	15550	TCP port to serve ACARS messages to
AR_SERVE_TCP_VDLM2	--serve-tcp-vdlm2	15555	TCP port to serve VDLM2 messages to
AR_SERVE_TCP_HFDL	--serve-tcp-hfdl	15556	TCP port to serve HFDL messages to
AR_SERVE_ZMQ_ACARS	--serve-zmq-acars	45550	ZMQ port to serve ACARS messages to
AR_SERVE_ZMQ_VDLM2	--serve-zmq-vdlm2	45555	ZMQ port to serve VDLM2 messages to
AR_SERVE_ZMQ_HFDL	--serve-zmq-hfdl	45556	ZMQ port to serve HFDL messages to

Inbound data

Env Variable	Command Line Switch	Default	Description
AR_RECV_ZMQ_ACARS	--recv-zmq-acars	unset	ZMQ host:port to receive ACARS messages from
AR_RECV_ZMQ_VDLM2	--recv-zmq-vdlm2	unset	ZMQ host:port to receive VDLM2 messages from
AR_RECV_ZMQ_HFDL	--recv-zmq-hfdl	unset	ZMQ host:port to receive HFDL messages from
AR_RECV_TCP_ACARS	--recv-tcp-acars	unset	TCP host:port to receive ACARS messages from
AR_RECV_TCP_VDLM2	--recv-tcp-vdlm2	unset	TCP host:port to receive VDLM2 messages from
AR_RECV_TCP_HFDL	--recv-tcp-hfdl	unset	TCP host:port to receive HFDL messages from
AR_LISTEN_TCP_ACARS	--listen-tcp-acars	5550	TCP port to listen for ACARS messages from
AR_LISTEN_TCP_VDLM2	--listen-tcp-vdlm2	5555	TCP port to listen for VDLM2 messages from
AR_LISTEN_TCP_HFDL	--listen-tcp-hfdl	5556	TCP port to listen for HFDL messages from
AR_LISTEN_UDP_ACARS	--listen-udp-acars	5550	UDP port to listen for ACARS messages from
AR_LISTEN_UDP_VDLM2	--listen-udp-vdlm2	5555	UDP port to listen for VDLM2 messages from
AR_LISTEN_UDP_HFDL	--listen-udp-hfdl	5556	UDP port to listen for HFDL messages from
AR_LISTEN_ZMQ_ACARS	--listen-zmq-acars	35550	ZMQ port to listen for ACARS messages from
AR_LISTEN_ZMQ_VDLM2	--listen-zmq-vdlm2	35555	ZMQ port to listen for VDLM2 messages from
AR_LISTEN_ZMQ_HFDL	--listen-zmq-hfdl	35556	ZMQ port to listen for HFDL messages from

General Options

Env Variable	Command Line Switch	Default	Description
AR_VERBOSITY	--verbose	info	Verbosity level. Valid values are debug, info, warning, error
AR_ENABLE_DEDUPE	--enable-dedupe	false	Enable message deduplication. Valid values are true or false
AR_DEDUPE_WINDOW	--dedupe-window	2	Window for how long a message will be considered a duplicate if the same message is received again.
AR_SKEW_WINDOW	--skew-window	5	If a message is older then the skew window it will be automatically rejected, in seconds. If you are receiving only ACARS/VDLM2 1 or 2 seconds is a good value. With HFDL you will need to increase the window.
AR_MAX_UDP_PACKET_SIZE	--max-udp-packet-size	60000	Maximum UDP packet size. Messages greater then this will be send in multiple parts
AR_ADD_PROXY_ID	--add-proxy-id	true	Append to the message a header indicating that acars router processed the message
AR_OVERRIDE_STATION_NAME	--override-station-name	unset	Change the station id field (identifying your station name for unstream clients) is set to this instead of what was in the message originally
AR_STATS_EVERY	--stats-every	5	How often to print stats to the log in minutes
AR_STATS_VERBOSE	--stats-verbose	false	Print verbose stats to the log
AR_REASSEMBLY_WINDOW	--reassemble-window	1.0	If a message comes in, but part of the message is missing, this value will be used to keep the partial message fragment around while attempting to wait for the second (or subsequent) part(s)