July/August - 17

CONSULTANT DISCUSSION
AUTHOR Joe Petrie
All of the digital or low voltage systems
inside facilities are considered part of the
airport information system.
ARORA ENGINEERS
It's basically all of the systems that
go into an airport, all of the digital or
low voltage systems, under one nice,
clean umbrella name.
How Airport Information
Systems Can Improve
Operations
Arora Engineers Vice President Edward Hart explains the
power of a comprehensive airport information system and
how airports are embracing this concept today.
AIRPORT LEADERS are in constant need of data.
Different systems tell different critical information for
operations and utilizing this information correctly can
enhance performance in a sizeable manner.
Edward Hart, RCDD, DSCE, Vice
Edward Hart: Basically, it's all airport
President, Arora Engineers is involved
with some of the most
comprehensive airport
information systems going
into place today, such as
the recently completed
terminal at Kansas City
International Airport
(MCI). He sat down with Airport
Business to discuss how these systems
work and the concept of a converged
system being used by MCI.
Airport Business: What are some of
the key components for an airport
information system and how can
they contribute to the overall function
of an airport?
systems. It's everything that goes into
making an airport work. It includes
such systems as common or preferred
use for airline management and
planning. EVIDS (Electronic Video
Information Display System) which
manages and digitally displays Flight,
Ticketing, Gate, Baggage, Ramp etc.
Information. Radio Systems such as
Wi-Fi, DAS (Distributed Antenna
System) for Cellular or Emergency
Communicat ion. Networking
System, Core/Edge
Firewalls and coordinating with
ISP's. Structured Cabling System:
Horizontal and Backbone cabling.
Telecommunications room design.
The list goes on.
AB: What were some of the goals
with placing the airport information
system into play at the new MCI terminal
and the challenges it faced?
EH: One of the networking goals
that was presented to us was the use
of a converged network. By putting
all your systems on a single network
you really have to pay attention to
data throughput, Quality of Service
(QoS) and Cybersecurity. These items
were addressed early on and ended up
working out well.
One of the major challenges the
design team faced was when we
received the documents for the project
compared to the state that the building
construction was in. The building's
envelope was already constructed, and
the contractors were ready to start
installing various systems such as data
and power. Meanwhile, we had a lot
of design work to complete to move
forward. So as the EOR the biggest
challenge for us was the tight schedule
we had to deliver a design on.
For instance, the schedule was
Switches,
moving very fast, and contractors
were eager to begin pulling cables.
However, our cable tray design was
not fully completed yet so there was
no pathway to pull the cables. We
had to ensure that we had an early
design for each building section, so
we worked section by section, keeping
pace with the construction team.
Physical infrastructure posed a significant
challenge, especially meeting the
demanding schedule.
The terminal had an immense
amount of data flowing through
it. Some communication rooms are
packed with cables, requiring a lot of
JULY/AUGUST 2023 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 17
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