The world’s oldest airport came into existence in 1909 when Wilbur Wright arrived at College Park Airport to train two US Army Officers. While the airport is small – only a single runway of 2,600 feet, it’s considered the “cradle of aviation.”
Fast forward over 110 years, and airport technology has grown by leaps and bounds. Wilbur Wright, having died only three years later from Typhoid Fever, would hardly recognize today’s aviation industry (his brother, Orville, died in 1947 and lived to see aviation become a military mainstay and a popular mode of civilian travel).
Today, airports are embracing Industry 4.0 digital technologies such as industrial IoT, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to expand their operational awareness, automate processes, and improve end-to-end efficiency.
The more that digitally-reliant operations of airports increase, the local area network (LAN) must be expanded and optimized to provide secure, high-bandwidth, and reliable connectivity for everything from gate operations and baggage systems to security and surveillance systems and digital signage.
Additionally, the network must also provide connectivity for the various service providers – from storefronts and restaurants to ground transportation – that rely on Wi-Fi to complete their jobs. Finally, private wireless must also be available for airport operations and critical communications for police and first responders.
The Nokia Optical LAN solution provides a cost-effective, scalable, and flexible LAN that can support current airport sub-systems and quickly scale as your facility adopts new digital applications and services in the future.
Evolving The Airport LAN
As bandwidth requirements have rapidly increased over the years, many airports have likely made multiple upgrades to their LAN to keep up. In some instances, solutions that were layered upon existing infrastructure may be in need of a full-scale overhaul. However, having to constantly upgrade systems by running new wires and adding new generations of switches and routers is inefficient in both time and cost.
Passive Optical LANs (POL) provide a more scalable option for keeping up with the constantly changing technological landscape. In addition to leveraging the tremendous bandwidth capacity of optical fiber, POLs also have the ability to cover a large distance – up to 20km – without intermediary equipment between the central switch and the endpoint.
With traditional CATx-based LAN networks, equipment rooms are required no more than 90 meters from the end device. This means that there are wiring closets and equipment rooms dotted throughout the airport that take up space that cannot be monetized. By utilizing POL, the gained space can be used for concessions or retail – or to expand gate seating to improve traveler comfort.
Optical fiber also provides airports with investment protection. CATx-cabling has bandwidth limits and will ultimately hinder the ability to keep up with passenger connectivity demands as well as the digital operations of the facility. POL, however, has a lower cost associated with major upgrades and provides a wireline LAN foundation to fully support digital operations, now and in the future.
The Nokia Optical LAN Solution
Nokia’s Optical LAN solution for airports uses fiber-based LAN technology to help meet the ever-increasing digital requirements of Airport 4.0. The lightweight and space-saving LAN solution use fiber optic cabling and splitters, thus avoiding the power and cooling costs associated with traditional CATx LAN infrastructure.
Nokia’s POL solution has a simple, flat architecture. The central switch, or Optical Line Terminal (OLT), is typically installed in the main IT facility of the airport. Optical Network Termination units (ONT) terminate the fiber and provide Ethernet connections to the airport subsystems or end devices, with the option to support Power over Ethernet (PoE).
The connection between the OLT and ONTs is based on single-mode fiber. A passive optical splitter in between the OLT and the ONT allows the OLT to support tens of ONTs per OLT port. There are different optical splitter variants, such as 1 to 32 split (1:32), which would provide 32 fiber connections from a single OLT port. The OLT also provides a connection to the airport campus core network. The complete Nokia Optical LAN network is managed by the POL Command Center (PCC).
Take Control Of Your Operations
The Nokia Optical LAN network is managed by the POL Command Center (PCC). This creates an advanced management solution for optimal performance and usability, along with a highly intuitive, simplified environment for configuration, automatic service activation, fault reporting, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
Service Offerings
The PCC simplifies management of the network, with quick and easy rollout of new services. Activation of new services is facilitated with pre-defined service definitions tailored for specific uses. In addition, the PCC verifies your service level agreements (SLAs) using graphed metrics.
Maintenance
The PCC provides easy navigation to network elements and their physical locations in the terminal using a realistic network view based on your specific floor plan.
Automation
The PCC supports many automated capabilities, such as the use of predefined services. In addition, it simplifies network growth with automated ONT discovery and activation.
Security
The PCC supports role- and resource-based access control. This ensures that IT staff can only access the parts of the network to which they’re allowed based on pre-defined roles such as admin, designer, observer, etc.
The Nokia Optical LAN solution also comes with built-in military-grade AES-128-bit data encryption.
The Benefits Of Going Optical
In addition to creating more usable – and potentially monetizable – space in airports, Nokia Optical LAN is also more cost-effective than traditional CATx solutions. Not only does it offer lower capital expenditures and operating expenses, but it also reduces power consumption and has lower HVAC requirements, thus saving costs in those arenas. For new builds, it can also help streamline and reduce the necessary footprint by nearly 5%, therefore saving funds on materials, resources, and labor and – down the line – maintenance.
Finally, fiber helps airports to avoid the costly upgrade and replacement cycles required by CATx solutions and provides a more easily scalable, robust, and reliable solution.
Infinity Technology Solutions for Nokia Optical LAN for Airports
With Nokia’s complete portfolio of networking solutions at our fingertips, Infinity Technology Solutions has decades of experience installing, maintaining, and optimizing networks for various industries, including airports and aviation.
