Wireless communications for airport surface: an evaluation of requirements

Reliable airport surface communications is vital in today's airport operations. Present Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), airlines, and airport authority communications infrastructure is very diverse. Airports in the United States use either fiber optics, copper cable or leased telecommunications services to transport voice, data, and system monitoring information between FAA facilities and the air traffic control tower (ATCT). Copper cable is the most utilized in-airport communications medium by FAA. A large number of airports have an aging infrastructure that requires frequent maintenance and in some instances reliability is reduced due to performance limitations. A reduced number of FAA facilities use leased telecommunications services or fiber optic electronics to transport critical system information. Leased telecommunications services are costly and do not provide the diversity and redundancy required by large facilities. FAA has an ongoing effort to refurbish its infrastructure. Significant funds are budgeted to repair or replace aging or damaged copper cable. Similarly, funds are allocated to deploy fiber optic systems. The continuous growth of airports coupled with modernization efforts have made buried copper/fiber cables vulnerable to cuts/digs. The impact a cable cut has on the National Airspace System (NAS) can range depending on the location of the cable cut, the type of cable impacted, the time of day the cable is cut, and the airport where the cable cut occurs. Most copper cables installed by FAA are point to point architectures. Consequently, facilities serviced by copper cables frequently lack the diversity and redundancy offered by fiber optic loops. Airline and airport authority have similar efforts in place designed to improve the efficiency of their operation by enhancing their communications infrastructure and services. To develop a surface wireless communications system, an understanding of existing and future voice and data communications requirements is necessary. This paper explores existing airport surface communications infrastructure, along with the data and voice communication requirements, within the U.S. A requirements evaluation for the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, one of the largest airports in the U.S., is presented