Tag: A@W

Passive Optical Network offers high-speed, future-proof and energy-efficient connectivity at Orlando International Airport’s new terminal

Posted on | by RaechelRucker

By John Hoover, Marketing Director, Tellabs

Orlando International Airport’s new Terminal C had an initial opening in September 2022, greater fanfare in the December 2022 time frame and has been in full flight ever since. They have published a few announcements touting how they are “one of the first North American airports to install a Passive Optical Network (PON), utilizing fiber-optic technology to create a high-speed, future-proofed, energy-efficient IT system.”

As the PON equipment provider at DFW, ORD, LGA, CDG and MCO, it seems fitting to expand on the reasons why this innovative fiber-based network is high-speed, future-proof and energy-efficient.

  • High-Speed – This fiber-first design promotes the use of optical cables to transmit data across far reaching distances and significantly limits the use of traditional copper cables. Orlando International Airport is one of the first airports to use an Optical LAN with symmetrical 10 gigabit speeds to extend Ethernet connectivity miles across a passive network. Better yet, all that fiber cabling installed today at the airport has no known theoretical bandwidth capacity limitation. Now that’s high-speed and from a sustainability standpoint, that cable will never need to be replaced (i.e., think back and remember all the times copper CATx cable had to be removed in favor of a newer faster CATx – never more!). Now that segues nicely into our next topic.
  • Future-Proof – The 10 gigabit PON technology is based on wave-division-multiplexing that can stack optical transmission over different colors of light without interference. That allows for 1 gigabit and 10 gigabit PON to use the same fiber cable and infrastructure, plus future 40 gigabit and 100 gigabit versions can be added without conflict. Additionally, the optical to electrical endpoints are equipped today with multi-gigabit Ethernet pluggable optics, so they can grow from 1 gig to 2.5 gig to 5 gig and even 10 gigs as needed in the future (i.e., now think of the future bandwidth needed to connect Wi-Fi 7 access points).
  • Energy-Efficient – It has been well documented how these optical LANs can reduce energy consumption, both electrical consumption and the rippling effect of lowering impact on building air conditioning. For Orlando International Airport’s Terminal C, as a result of the extended reach over fiber optic cabling, they were able to reduce the number of communications rooms required for their IT systems. With fewer communications rooms, the airport is saving energy on both lower power and less HVAC. Even better yet, the airport was able to convert that real estate footprint, saved by eliminating communications rooms, to revenue generating purposes (e.g., lease that space back to retailers and vendors).

If you’d like to learn more about airports’ use of Passive Optical LANs, be sure to speak with one of the Tellabs’ airport connectivity specialists (table 18) at the 2023 Airports@Work conference at the Sheraton Grande Seattle in Seattle, Washington from April 24 – 27.

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About the author

John Hoover is a marketing director at Tellabs and board director for the Association for Promoting Optical LAN (APOLAN). Over the past 20 years, John has influenced industry milestones such as early passive optical network deployments, video implementations, and now Passive Optical LAN adoption into enterprise markets.  John Hoover LinkedIn Profile.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER

This article was provided by a third party and, as such, the views expressed therein and/or presented are their own and may not represent or reflect the views of Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), its management, Board, or members. Readers should not act on the basis of any information contained in the blog without referring to applicable laws and regulations and/or without appropriate professional advice.

FIDS Reimagined – Leveraging FIDS Screens to Improve Passenger Experience

Posted on | by RaechelRucker

By Colleen Hamilton, Principal, Art of Context

Maximizing resource use and improving the passenger experience are at the top of any airport’s priority list. FIDS has long been a key function in the airport ecosystem and new technologies exist that allow airports to maximize the information displayed while improving the passenger experience.

Design template (example data).  Leverage space on landscape screens without sacrificing display of flight information.

 

Low-Row FIDS

Single use screens are a thing of the past. Today’s cloud-based FIDS provide opportunities for airports to automatically repurpose empty screen space to offer travelers a sense of place, useful travel information, or even advertisements.

FIDS has a large amount of metadata that can be used to drive other content allowing airports to automatically fill empty screen space. Repurposing screen space provides the opportunity to increase revenue with advertising, improve loyalty with airport promotions, and encourage tourism by highlighting local culture and attractions.

The display of non-flight information is based on a data-driven trigger that allows additional content such as a QR Code for information about the airport parking membership program, to automatically be shown, but only when there is enough room on screen to make the code easily scannable.

Advertisements of different sizes can be slotted as space allows and can be tied to our proof-of-play functionality for information collection and statistics gathering.


Urgency-based tile FIDS

Showing urgency tiles and standard row and column FIDS side-by-side in the same space provides data in different formats to engage travelers with varying learning styles. It allows airports to impact passenger flow – keeping passengers close to concessions to increase consumer spend, while also providing travelers with the most up to date information.

The tile format gives passengers an easily scannable view of their flight, along with strong color cues letting them know when it’s time to either relax or get to their gate. Tiles even flash yellow when particularly urgent. Our solution ties into the airport’s common-use system to leverage status messages entered by gate agents and to determine tile messaging and urgency styling.

 

 

To learn more about how Art of Context can help you reimagine your FIDS and to optimize your screen real estate, please visit us at booth 2 at the ACI Airports @ Work conference in Seattle, April 24 – 27, or visit us at www.artofcontext.com

 


Colleen Hamilton is a principal with Art of Context, a Boston-based technology firm helping airports improve passenger experience through state-of-the-art technology solutions that reduce client administration and ensure extension for future innovations. Art of Context has recently been certified as a DBE.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER

This article was provided by a third party and, as such, the views expressed therein and/or presented are their own and may not represent or reflect the views of Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), its management, Board, or members. Readers should not act on the basis of any information contained in the blog without referring to applicable laws and regulations and/or without appropriate professional advice.