Three of the four airports serving Paris will be connected by a private wireless network to support the 120,000 employees who work at the airports. Charles de Gaulle (CDG), Orly, and Paris–Le Bourget are part of the project. All three airports are owned by Groupe ADP, which also owns project manager Hub One Digital Technologies. Hub One is developing the private network with support from Air France.
Grégoire de La Crouée, business line director at Hub One, said the team has prioritized CDG and Orly, which are the larger airports, for the first stage of the network build. The network is meant for airport employees and equipment, not for travelers.
Hub One purchased a license from the French government to build the LTE network in Band 38 (2570-2620 MHz). De La Crouée said the network is 5G compliant and could be upgraded through software, adding that right now “the ecosystem is not mature enough” for a 5G upgrade.
Ericsson is the radio vendor for the project. De La Crouée said the team has already deployed 100 macro and small cell radios outdoors and is in the process of installing 1,000 – 1,500 antennas for indoor coverage.
The core network is provided by Athonet. De La Crouée described the core as “fully redundant” with one installation in Orly and one at CDG.
“Athonet’s 4G/5G professional-grade mobile core network not only provides us with uncompromised reliability but also the full functionality of carrier grade networks, and does so with the agility and ease of use of a next generation, all-software solution,” said de La Crouée in a release. “Moreover, Athonet’s solution for Hub One has been audited and authorized by the French National Cybersecurity Agency.“
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The network will support mission critical push-to-talk (PTT) service provided by Streamwide, which makes a PTT smartphone application.
In addition to PTT, the private LTE network will improve instant messages, video calls, data sharing between departments and automatic notifications, according to Athonet.
Italian systems integrator Italtel has brought together the various elements that are part of the private network, including the Streamwide PTT service and a converged fixed/mobile solution for VoLTE. Italtel deployed fixed networks in the Paris airports in 2015 and has now added support for mobile.
According to Italtel, the network will connect employees from roughly 1,000 companies that operate in the airports.
Henri Tallon, director at Hub One’s telecom division, foresees the network offering new efficiencies and keeping travelers safer. “The network will take over current services and offer new services not only to improve airport safety and security but also to improve technical intervention (refueling the plane, baggage handling, data retrieval, etc.),” Tallon said in a release.
Tallon also foresees an eventual 5G upgrade for the private network. “The switch to 5G should pave the way for another category of services such as the rapid download of flight data upon landing of the aircraft, the use of augmented reality in remote maintenance or the deployment of autonomous vehicles,” he predicted.