airports TETRA takes off
For mission-critical ground communications at busy airports, radio systems based on TETRA digital technology have become the natural choice. Alun Lewis looks into the reasons
T
here’s long been a close relationship between aviation and wireless communications. At around the same time that mankind was physically taking
to the air through the fi rst attempts at fi xed-wing fl ight, so too were the pioneers of radio exploring ways to control the airwaves. Since those fi rst stumbling steps – amazingly only a little more than a century ago – that intimacy has grown as each sector went on to shrink the world in its own particular way. T e role of wireless in the actual air is familiar enough to all of us through countless disaster blockbusters involving stressed air traffi c control staff and heroic pilots. By contrast, there’s far less understanding of what goes on in the realm of radio when the aircraft touches down on the ground and a multitude of more mundane – but just as vital – processes goes into action. In today’s lean, asset-sweating times, aircraft must be turned around as quickly as possible – and that involves choreographing a complex dance of behind-the-scenes activities to get the aeroplanes fuelled, cleaned, restocked, crewed and maintained. Meanwhile, inside the terminal, passengers and personnel must be marshalled in just as effi cient way, informed and directed through the various choke-points and checkpoints to arrive – hopefully – without delay to either themselves or the airport’s other operations.
Issue 1 November 2010 - February 2011 TE TRA TODAY Until the arrival of TETRA on the aviation scene,
synchronizing all these activities in a smooth and seamless way was challenging, to say the least. All the diff erent companies and entities involved – from fuel tanker drivers to airline check-in staff – used diff erent communications methods, radio systems and frequencies. T e complexities and ineffi ciencies implicit in such a fragmented infrastructure – impacting everything from spectrum availability to operational effi ciencies and staffi ng levels – called out for a single integrated approach to airport communications. As increasing numbers of airports around the world are
now fi nding out, Tetra off ers just such an infrastructure – and one that rapidly recovers the costs involved in deployment and training.
Public safety roots As Phil Godfrey of the TETRA Association explains, TETRA’s history have made it an ideal fi t for such a challenging environment. “After some early projects, the aviation sector has really taken off for TETRA just in the last four or fi ve years”, he says. “Its public safety origins have made it a very well suited for the kinds of mission- critical applications that you fi nd in the aviation ground environment – even if most of those applications are commercial rather than emergency-oriented, the safety of the travelling public and staff remains paramount.
Digital radio
communications: an effective tool for improving the effi ciency of airport operations. (Picture: Cassidian)
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