Runway engineers and other staff at Manchester Airport
are to get wireless handheld devices to help reduce paper-based
reporting.
The airport is installing a wireless mesh network based on
Trapeze's Smart Mobile technology to allow operational staff moving
about the terminal to access the corporate network from
wireless-enabled laptops and other devices.
The airport's overall strategy is to implement a campus-wide
wireless network that will allow secure access for staff and
travellers.
Aaron Bazler, head of IT at Manchester Airport, said that over
the past 16 to 18 months the airport had been concentrating on
developing an indoor wireless network.
"Now we are looking at extending our wireless coverage outside
the terminal buildings to substations and other buildings," he
said.
At the moment, the airport requires roaming staff to use trunk
radios or mobile phones, and many of the processes are paper
based.
One of the airport's biggest databases is based on Lotus Notes
and currently only PCs linked to the local area network can access
it, said Bazler. He plans to mobile-enable Notes so that, for
example, engineers checking runway lights can file reports and make
purchase orders from the runways via PDAs.
"We will be able to use bridging technology to deliver the
wireless network outside. As soon as an airport has to run cables
it becomes increasingly complex," said Bazler.
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