Hong Kong International Airport Trunk Mobile Radio Network

Showing the vast expanse of the Hong Kong International Airport Passenger Terminal Building.

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), located on reclaimed land on Lantau Island, is a major global aviation hub, covering 1,255 hectares and featuring one of the world’s longest runways at 3,800 meters. The airport's Passenger Terminal Building (PTB) is an architectural masterpiece, spanning over 570,000 square meters, and designed to enhance the travel experience with its spacious, efficient layout. Its wide-span, cable-supported roof maximizes natural light, and the terminal’s layout is optimized for smooth passenger flow, incorporating advanced technologies like automated check-in kiosks and self-service baggage drops. The PTB’s modular design allows for future expansion to accommodate growing passenger traffic.

To ensure seamless operations, the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) required the design and implementation of an MPT1327 Trunk Mobile Radio System, providing reliable communication across critical areas such as the Ground Transportation Centre, Air Cargo Centre, Automatic People Mover railway vehicle tunnels, cargo handling facilities, aircraft maintenance facilities, public areas, runways, and utility tunnels. This extensive coverage supports operational efficiency and safety across the entire airport complex.

Our consultants have been integral in the development of radio systems at HKIA, from its original design and installation to its expansion into additional passenger terminals. We’ve also provided expertise in designing and installing private Trunk Mobile Radio (TMR) systems for Telecommunications carriers within the PTB, ensuring that all communication needs across the airport are met with the highest standards of reliability and coverage. This ongoing involvement highlights our deep understanding of the airport's technical requirements and our commitment to supporting its operational excellence.

Key Objectives:

Seamless Communication Coverage: Ensure high-reliability communication across the entire Airport complex including Passenger Terminal Buildings, and Apron Areas.

System Interoperability: Facilitate seamless communication and interoperability between airport operators, airlines, and emergency services to ensure coordinated and efficient response in critical situations.

Enhanced Safety: Enable real-time communication for operational teams to improve emergency response and system resilience.

Enhance Passenger Experience: Improve the passenger experience by enabling reliable information dissemination across the airport, ensuring passengers receive timely and accurate updates throughout their journey.

Key Activities Undertaken by our consultants:

Needs Assessment: Thorough review of tender documentation, extensive consultations with stakeholders, Coverage, Capacity and Spectrum analysis to determine antenna placement, base station sizing and channel allocation.

Technology Selection: The team chose a hybrid solution combining fibre optic transceivers, cascaded bi-directional amplifiers, and distributed antenna systems to provide seamless reliable coverage across the Airport.

Network Design: RF propagation models were created for rural and in building environments to determine power, noise, intermodulation and spurious free dynamic range levels to design an optimal distributed antenna system for seamless coverage across the Airport, minimising CAPEX costs.

Implementation and Testing: Ensuring the installation followed the detailed design and installation drawings provided by our consultant. This was followed by rigorous testing to ensure compliance with specifications and successful performance.

Results:

Reliable High Performance Communication: The TMR system facilitated real-time mission critical radio communications among all airport operators, enabling coordination and efficiency.

Improved Safety: Reliable communications facilitated faster emergency response times, ensuring passenger and staff safety.

Increased Passenger Satisfaction: Enhanced information dissemination capabilities allowed for timely updates on flight status, significantly improving passenger satisfaction.

Conclusion:

The design and implementation of an MPT1327 Trunk Mobile Radio base station system with hybrid distributed antenna system for the AAHK and Telecommunications Companies successfully met the technical, operational and safety requirements of the Airport, avoiding delays and reducing costs.