German airport operator "Flughagen Munchen GmbH" aims to build the most advanced user-friendly Internet service provider (ISP) hotspot in the world, thus enhancing the attraction of Munich International Airport to wireless Internet users. Business travelers and other Internet users can now not only access the Internet while waiting for the plane at the airport, but also choose their own ISP. Munich International Airport is the second largest commercial airport in Germany. In 2002, 23.2 million passengers were transported, achieving air freight1440,000 tons and taking off and landing nearly 33 1000 times. "Flug Hagen Munchen GmbH" (FMG) is the operator of Munich Airport. The company hopes to increase passenger flow. With the opening of the second terminal, the airport plans to at least double the number of passengers to 50 million in June 2003.
In order to achieve this goal, FMG hopes to attract customers by providing world-leading services and facilities with its rich experience in wireless LAN technology. Since 1999, wireless technology has been applied to airport bus dispatching and task control system, flight delay service, thawing, pure water supply and baggage transportation.
FMG has successfully used wireless technology for internal operation. Now it is necessary to extend this technology to provide wireless Internet access for airport passengers, and become a value-added partner of Internet service providers (ISP) to provide new applications and services for their users. Business travelers who wait for flights at the airport and can't access the Internet for hours will lose millions of dollars to organizations that rely on air travel to complete their affairs because of the loss of work efficiency. The goal of FMG is to enable travelers to use their home or business ISP when traveling, which can greatly simplify online access and realize single-source billing.
Information technology infrastructure is very important for FMG to achieve this goal. The existing network environment of the airport is a plane IP structure, which is very mixed. Based on many different technologies, the network downtime and cost increase, the flexibility decreases, and it cannot be expanded to adapt to future development.
On 200 1 10, FMG first provided wireless Internet access in the passenger terminal and central hall of Munich Airport. However, the existing network is very troublesome to use. FMG quickly became the first WLAN provider to allow users to enter and select an ISP through the drop-down menu on the airport portal page, which enabled users to log in as if they were at home or in the office. One of the first measures is to strengthen the key part of the existing airport network. It is realized by transplanting its ATM to Cisco Ethernet and deploying LRE switch. LRE components provide higher bandwidth for extremely remote locations up to 3000 meters away from the data center.
The design of the new system adopts VPN with Cisko Katalyst 6500 series switches, and provides routing and multi-protocol functions based on open standards. This enables FMG to deploy powerful network cores to support WLAN and WLAN.
Multi-service provider hotspots are different from standard public Internet access systems in topology. Its physical connection is realized through 20 Cisko Aironet 350 series access points. Two Cisco Building Broadband Service Managers (BBSM) ensure that users can access the network without changing the network settings.
The system can also be used as a portal platform to provide airport maps, flight schedules and related information of hotels and retail stores in airport parks for free. This paper lists the ISP that can be selected through multi-service provider mode, so that users can connect to the Internet to obtain services such as e-mail, virtual private network or video on demand.
Through Cisko 7400 series router with service selection gateway, users can access the service provider they choose and handle the verification and billing process, thus integrating the traditional service provider technology with the company network system. Cisco Katalyst switches and content engines can quickly distribute requested Internet content. In the future, the multi-ISP hotspots at Munich Airport will enable passengers to access not only the public Internet, but also their own corporate intranet. "Munich Airport now has a perfect platform to support multi-service network infrastructure," Reer said. "We are going to deploy e-commerce tools, including logistics, wireless, voice and customer relationship management systems, so that FMG can provide a better service suite."