Frankfurt Airport is the largest airport in the Federal Republic of Germany—and is also the largest local employer. More than 70,000 people work here in over 520 businesses. The operating company Fraport AG is one of the leading companies in the airport industry. Its integrated expertise covers the entire scope of products and services in the airport business. The airport's apron management is performed in two towers at Terminal 1 (central ramp) and Terminal 2 (east ramp). To modernize both apron management systems, the airport planned to replace the analog system with digital Keyboard - Video - Mouse systems. BFE was tasked with performing this project, and implemented it successfully and on time.
Task:
The order involved replacing the existing analog KVM systems from the manufacturer Raritan, which were installed in 2009, with digital KVM systems from IHSE. The apron management services are responsible for the entire management of ground traffic and rolling traffic at Frankfurt Airport, and operate on a 24/7 basis. As such, there was only a very narrow time window available for the installation and initial startup work. The top priority was to avoid delays or cancellations at all costs, which would have had far-reaching consequences throughout the airport's operations.
Solution:
To ensure the project was implemented without any problems, BFE drew up a detailed migration concept in advance. This enabled the systematic shutdown of the old systems and initial startup of the new KVM systems. All systems had already been tested internally at BFE in a test set-up. This was followed by a preliminary acceptance by Fraport AG as part of the plant delivery inspection.
Since the conversion phases were performed overnight, disruptions to operations were kept to a minimum, and all the customer requirements were fully met. After a 4-week stabilization phase, the project was accepted on time.
Highlights:
Detailed migration concept for step-by-step systematic replacement
Internal BFE test set-up for full preliminary testing
Implementation focusing the minimum possible disruption to operations
Equipment Details:
2 control rooms
16 workstations, each with 3 monitors, 3 keyboards, and 3 mice
Technology:
Digital KVM systems from IHSE