The Network Control Facility (NCF) serves as the communication and help desk hub for the National Weather Service’s Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). The NCF has been operational since 1997 and has undergone a number of architectural changes over the past years. This paper will discuss the most recent upgrades in architecture and the benefits to the field sites. We also introduce in this paper the Backup NCF in Fairmont, West Virginia, which was installed and activated in 2002.

The NCF hardware architecture has been undergoing some significant changes in the past year. Some of the critical servers and communications processors have been upgraded to Linux servers. The FDDI LAN has been replaced where possible with a 100BaseT LAN. The results of these upgrades have reduced the bottleneck in the NCF product distribution and positioned the NCF to handle the additional products that are planned.

The Backup NCF was a key initiative towards the goal of providing backup capabilities of mission critical systems for the National Weather Service. In the event of a catastrophic loss of the primary NCF in Silver Spring, Maryland, the fully functioning Backup NCF will be able to assume all mission critical functions.