"We believe by making wireless access pervasive and free to travelers, we can help to bring rates down and improve the quality of their travel." Sam Ingalls, director of Information Systems for Clark County Department of Aviation said. "We looked at the current business models out there but just didn't see charging consumers for Wi-Fi as the answer to leveraging Wi-Fi as a tool at McCarran."
Ultimately, the new Wi-Fi service will allow McCarran, which is experiencing monthly double-digit passenger growth, to provide a wide range of services to travelers such as the ability to check flight information from Wi-Fi enabled displays and access reservation kiosk services. The new wireless environment is also being used to support airport productivity and operational applications.
Ingalls noted that beyond simply providing public Wi-Fi service, McCarran can offer unique new services that speed travelers through the airport. "We can now employ, for instance, roving attendants with wireless handheld devices and pocket printers approach travelers waiting in line to check them in so they don't miss their flight."
"Most airports have to fix their air space, we don't," said Gerard Hughes, network manager for McCarran Airport. "Aruba's systems let us easily and securely partition our radio frequency environment so we can give each carrier or vendor their own virtual wireless network along with the requisite services and security they need. Other airports have service providers that charge people to get online. We don't because our system gives us the flexibility and controls to realize ROI in other ways such as providing service to companies doing business within the airport."
Unlike other airports, McCarran is able to provide the free service because it owns and operates its own airport-wide telecommunications infrastructure. By using the new centralized system, McCarran realizes greater economies of scale because the system requires less equipment than alternative solutions, centralized all security and radio frequency controls and provides advanced wireless security.
McCarran has deployed both single and dual radio 802.11a/b/g access points (APs) throughout the airport. The grid points are centrally managed using a modular WLAN system. The switches in the system are equipped with virtual private network and intrusion prevention software modules. These modules provide McCarran with stateful policy engine that can be used to enforce strict security and access controls for each user and the ability to automatically detect and eliminate rogue APs, wireless interference sources, ad-hoc networks and to block a variety of wireless intrusions and attacks.
The airport plans to make the wireless network available to different users in phases. The first phase, recently completed, provides all travelers free Internet access. Future phases will untether some of the airport's passenger processing applications such as flight information display systems and reservation kiosks in order to more efficiently move people into and out of the terminals. The airport also plans to offer carriers customized wireless services tailored for their specific needs. Because McCarran's wireless network was designed for both public and private use, security was a primary factor in the selection of a wireless system.
"Eventually we'll have different types of users with different applications," said Hughes.
Future uses for the airport's Wi-Fi network may include wireless-enabled flight display information systems, wireless podiums that can be moved to accommodate larger or smaller sized groups for departures and arrivals and mobile dispatch services for wheelchairs, etc.
