July-August_2021 - 38

COMMUNICATIONS
geography or harsh weather conditions,
and still enable communication with
airports located elsewhere. This means
regardless of conditions or environment;
airports can continue to safely operate
and provide the best service possible to
customers. Downtime is non-negotiable
and cannot be tolerated within a field
where fast-moving airplanes and large
numbers of people need to be carefully
managed to avoid any accidents.
Satellites are the
Answer
Satellites are the solution airports should
utilize to ensure the smooth day-to-day
running of operations. They are able
to provide the safe, secure, reliable and
resilient connectivity needed, thanks
to their high capacity, availability and
ability to work in situations where
conditions can prove difficult to other
network topologies and where security
and service availability are paramount.
With
satel l ite
Putting Theory Into
Practice
This was a real issue faced by
Aeuronatica Civil de Colombia in
South America, which is responsible for
running more than 130 airfields across
this largely rural country, with a rugged
geography that includes the Andes
Mountains, part of the dense Amazon
rainforest and islands in the Caribbean.
Air safety in Colombia relies on constant
communication between airports to
exchange flight routes and plans, share
any weather or report updates and any
other pieces of information that may
affect scheduling.
All of these
locations have
connect ivit y,
airport operators will have access to
communications that are reliable and
highly effective at reaching sites, even
in remote areas. However, this is only
possible with a network and solutions
that are designed to meet the specific
requirements needed for that particular
airport and its fast transmission of
health and safety information and
mission critical communication. Not
all airports have the time, knowledge
and resources to implement this
themselves. Therefore, it is important
that airport operators work with satellite
solution providers who can design and
implement innovations that are adapted
to specific business needs. This will
ensure the appropriate network is put
in place and managed in a way that will
provide the highest efficiency and the
best performance.
their own difficulties that must be
overcome, such as variable weather
conditions and extreme geographies,
alongside the overall challenge of
having a network that must be able to
communicate to other site in remote
places where there tends to be very
little existing infrastructure. This makes
the geography a daily challenge to the
agency's ability to carry out its mission
to keep flights running on time and
safely. This has been a problem made
more severe by the disruption to air
travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aviation agency relies on
national telecommunications company
Empresa Telecomunicaciones de Bogata
(ETB) to connect its far-flung network
of airports located across the country.
ETB itself relies on a satellite solution
provider to connect the 12 most
remote airports. As such, these sites
are connected by a high-reliability
VSAT network which had to be
especially designed, installed,
and operated linking it to
ETB's terrestrial network.
Upgrading Infrastructure
Seamlessly
While the pandemic had a huge impact
on the aviation industry, it also boosted
demand for connectivity to transmit
urgent health and safety information
and fast-changing travel regulations.
It soon became realized by ETB and
the air agency that a network upgrade
was needed to address this growing
requirement for greater bandwidth and
network flexibility.
ETB required help to increase its
capacity in light of the global pandemic.
This required the installation of new
infrastructure and bringing it online
at each site without any disruption
to ongoing operations. However,
converting and upgrading the entire
satellite network took more than just
the flicking of a switch. This is where
it becomes
imperative for airport
operators to utilize the services of a
highly experienced and leading satellite
solution provider, such as Speedcast,
to ensure an upgrade is as seamless as
possible and is capable of truly meeting
business requirements and passenger
demand, both now and in the future.
All 12 airports needed new
equipment, which meant having
expert engineering design, purchasing,
and testing to make sure the proposed
network would meet
the needs of
each of
the
With satellite connectivity, airport operators will have access to
communications that are reliable and highly effective at reaching
sites, even in remote areas.
ISTOCK
38 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / JULY/AUGUST 2021
July-August_2021

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