Improvements in Operational Efficiency at Airports Using Lte Networks for Communications

With airplane manufacturers predicting a doubling of the number of aircraft in operation within the next twenty years and the number of unmanned aerial systems growing even faster communications needs in the aviation sector will increase manyfold. This puts pressure on the aerodrome and airport operators to adopt new communications technologies. Aside from the commercial use of communications networks at airports leading agencies are more and more looking for consolidated technologies able to share their infrastructure between commercial customers and mission-critical services. LTE has emerged as a technology-of-choice with key-site implementations at "early adopter" airports already in place.Aside from commercial mobile communications services, LTE delivers mission critical solutions for the aviation industry, which airport control rooms are beginning to take advantage of providing coverage of the airport’s entire operational area. Some airport control rooms have also started deploying "professional" LTE networks from single or multiple vendors which further enhance their existing communication infrastructure.In this contribution, we look at LTE-based broadband technologies at airports and start with describing the underlying protocols and standards. We highlight the concept of the open-standards based Mission-Critical Push-To-Talk (MCPTT) services over LTE and introduce an interworking function with air traffic control communications. Finally we describe implementation and benefits for operations in at the airport and the aerodrome.