New Airwaves for World's Busiest Airport

Major airports are constantly upgrading their networks to accommodate increasing passenger traffic. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (HAIA), the world's busiest passenger airport, is no different. As HAIA has continually enhanced its 5.8-million-square-foot facility, part of that effort

In 2000, HAIA management determined that the existing network and telecommunications infrastructure was inadequate to support the airport's long-term vision. "When we looked at our current infrastructure and considered our customer needs and where we wanted to go with services, we found that there were major gaps," says Lance Lyttle, HAIA's chief information officer. "The airport did not have an airport-wide, centrally managed infrastructure, with the required technology and bandwidth to support future required applications."

In addition, cellular telephone and public safety wireless coverage was spotty. Although some cellular carriers had deployed their own, in-building wireless distribution systems to boost their signals, other carriers relied on nearby outdoor cell towers.

As a result of the analysis, the airport embarked on a three phase, four-year, $11-million telecommunications infrastructure upgrade program that would bring state-of-the-art voice, video and data communications to every part of the airport for passengers, employees and tenants. The program rolled out in three phases, the first two of which involved building new telecommunications rooms, raceways, conduits and cable trays, and then installing a centralized, OC-192 fiber-based backbone for all voice, video and data traffic.

In the third phase, HAIA built value-added services, including Wi-Fi access and pervasive cellular and public safety wireless coverage. As part of its wireless neutral-host strategy, HAIA chose to build its own system. HAIA's evaluation team worked directly with cellular carriers for more than a year to select, design and implement a system that would meet everyone's needs.

"We wanted a proven system that would support multiple providers--a system that had the carriers' confidence," says Lyttle.

The deployment includes on-site base stations from cellular carriers, located in the airport's new "telecommunications hotel." The wireless signals are propagated from them throughout the airport via a distributed antenna system. The HAIA team wanted a system that could distribute wireless coverage evenly, without signal loss, regardless of the distance from the carrier base station. In addition, the team wanted a system that could easily support the airport's high customer volume and could be cost-effectively deployed and upgraded to support additional capacity and new wireless services.

The evaluation team eventually chose the InterReach Unison system from LGC Wireless. The Unsion system uses a familiar hub-and-spoke architecture, much like that of an Ethernet LAN. At HAIA, the deployment involved eight separate Unison systems that included 36 main hubs, 96 expansion hubs, more than 500 active remote access units, and in excess of 700 ceiling-mounted antennas.

The system now delivers voice and data services to every area of the airport, including ticket lobbies, baggage-handling areas, gates and throughout the underground passenger transportation system. It currently handles traffic for all wireless subscribers, as well as the airport's public safety workforce.