As airlines, retail customers and passengers all require high-quality, uninterrupted services – major international airports place high demands on network infrastructure and solutions for its around-the-clock operations. Although network infrastructure and IT services are mission-critical for maintaining a competitive edge, they involve increasing investments and substantial risks. Common challenges for airport businesses include the documentation and proper management of retail and consumer activities as well as the provisioning of the IT infrastructure needed for those services. To ensure operations consistently run smoothly and provide high availability at all times, network managers must optimize the management of all IT components from the network, to terminal devices, servers, storage, software, and applications within one central data model.
Fraport AG, operator of Frankfurt Airport, is a leader in the global airport business offering a full range of integrated airport management services. As Frankfurt Airport is the third largest airport in Europe, it has extensive IT infrastructure to ensure seamless flight operations behind the scenes. The large-scale infrastructure links structured cabling over 500 buildings with approximately 36,000 rooms.
Within the infrastructure, Fraport monitors 47,000 km of fiber optic cables, 157,000 junction boxes, 26,000 active LAN ports, 4,000 routers and managed switches, around 8,000 PCs, 16,000 telephones and faxes, plus 600 WLAN access points which supplies about 2,000 clients with wireless connectivity.
Beyond the sheer mass of equipment, the complexity of this IT environment requires that Fraport monitors and manages a variety of technologies such as a local area network (LAN), telephony and access control systems for fire and intrusion detectors, elevator emergency systems, surveillance cameras, monitors in terminals, and systems for baggage transportation and screening. As operations must run smoothly seven days a week – maximum availability is required.
To gain full transparency into their complex cable networks, Fraport needed a comprehensive, high-performance infrastructure management solution.
Fraport implemented FNT Command to gain complete visibility into every network asset and effectively manage Frankfurt Airport’s IT, cable network and telecommunications infrastructure. Furthermore, airport IT operations utilizes the data to optimize resolution processes and predict interactions between networks, servers, workstations, and software management from both a technological and business viewpoint.
To ensure high availability, Fraport operates the data center information management solution on redundant systems for approximately 200 internal and external users. Since every user has access rights set according to their role, the system can automatically determine whether a planned procedure is possible and which passive and active components are required.
“FNT Command is the central memory of our communications infrastructure and manages approximately 400,000 connections and patches,” said Klaus Schultz-Fademrecht, Senior Networks Manager of Fraport AG.
Since Fraport redundantly interfaced all critical systems and routing connections via different cable trays, their network of 26,000 LAN connections has successfully achieved availability of 99.999 percent. Other multi-layered benefits of the implemented IT infrastructure management solution have included transparent documentation and a reliable basis for planning across all systems.
“If, for example, an excavator severs a group of cables due to extensive construction, the systems will not be affected,” said Schultz-Fademrecht. “However, in such a case, we need to quickly determine which cables and systems are affected. Now, an email is automatically generated which graphically displays the affected areas.”
Additionally, Fraport benefits from more efficient debugging as the airport houses numerous walkable cable ducts. In the event of a cable malfunction, it is necessary to know immediately which cable tray a cable is located on, which building is affected, where the cable goes into the duct and where it comes out again. This transparency eliminates faults and sends the required information directly to external on-call personnel.
“Prior to FNT Command, I was forced to send personnel to the field to check whether we still had space in the cabinet, where the patch panel was located, what the internal structure of the cabinet was, or how the power supply and UPS were implemented,” Schultz-Fademrecht said. “The direct retrieval of information saves us an enormous amount of expensive traveling time – especially as our personnel frequently had to pass security controls.”
Overall, major international airports like Frankfurt need a comprehensive, end-to-end, integrated data model and central repository for the fast documentation and planning of their entire IT infrastructure. In addition to supporting IT assets, an integrated data model and server management ultimately optimizes IT processes and lower IT costs, thus transforming infrastructure to provide best-in-class service. This enables Fraport to proactively manage its airport operations and keep pace with the dynamic needs of its international customer base.
Sean Graham, General Manager of FNT Software’s office in Parsippany, New Jersey, is responsible for operations in North America. FNT Software is a leading provider of integrated software solutions for IT management, data center infrastructure management and telecommunication infrastructure management worldwide. FNT Software has more than 500 customers in various sectors including 8 of the 10 largest airports in Germany.
