How airport information systems can improve operations

KANSAS CITY – Airport leaders are in constant need of data. Different systems tell different critical information for operations and utilizing this information correctly can enhance performance in a sizeable manner.

Edward Hart, RCDD, DSCE, Vice President, Arora Engineers is involved with some of the most comprehensive airport information systems going into place today, such as the recently completed terminal at Kansas City International Airport (MCI). He sat down with Airport Business to discuss how these systems work and the concept of a converged system being used by MCI, Joe Petrie reports for Airport Business. Continue reading original article.

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

10 October 2023 – Petrie asked Hart about the key components for an airport information system and how can they contribute to the overall function of an airport.

“Basically, it’s all airport systems,” Hart says. “It’s, everything that goes into making an airport work. It includes such systems as common or preferred use for airline management and planning. EVIDS (Electronic Video Information Display System) which manages and digitally displays Flight, Ticketing, Gate, Baggage, Ramp etc. Information. Radio Systems such as WiFi, DAS (Distributed Antenna System) for Cellular or Emergency Communication. Networking System, Core/Edge Switches, Firewalls and coordinating with ISP’s. Structured Cabling System: Horizontal and Backbone cabling. Telecommunications room design. The list goes on. It’s basically all of the systems that go into an airport, all of the digital or low voltage systems, under one nice, clean umbrella name.”

He continues, “One of the networking goals that was presented to us was the use of a converged network. By putting all your systems on a single network you really have to pay attention to data throughput, Quality of Service (QoS) and Cybersecurity. These items were addressed early on and ended up working out well.

One of the major challenges the design team faced was when we received the documents for the project compared to the state that the building construction was in. The building’s envelope was already constructed, and the contractors were ready to start installing various systems such as data and power. Meanwhile, we had a lot of design work to complete to move forward. So as the EOR the biggest challenge for us was the tight schedule we had to deliver a design on.

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Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics