Ottawa Airport
When the Ottawa International Airport (OIA) was contacted by Plaintree
Systems Inc. about using Plaintree’s Free Space Optical (FSO) wireless
equipment they were immediately interested. Construction had already begun
on the OIA Expansion Project and they were in need of some communication
links. The PCL Construction Group who is in charge of the project needed to
connect their onsite office to the main terminal. Plaintree’s WAVEBRIDGE
links provide that connection while avoiding the expense of laying cable or
fiber. The links were also installed and available for use in less than one
day, saving plenty of time.
Another advantage to using Plaintree’s optical wireless links is the fact
that they do not use any radio spectrum to send communication transmissions.
Radio frequencies are highly regulated at any airport and the WAVEBRIDGE
links do not interfere with any communications system already in use.
Free Space Optical wireless equipment also has a much higher payload than
most radio frequency communications systems. Simply put, Plaintree’s
WAVEBRIDGE system can send far greater amounts of data than other wireless
systems which was noted by Project Director, David Caulfield in the Ottawa
Airport press release: “Thanks to Plaintree technology, we did not have to
physically wire PCL construction’s site office. With this technology, the
remote office is directly connected to our network. Document exchange is
therefore almost instantaneous even for large files such as construction
plans”, said David Caulfield, Airport Expansion Project Director.
There are other Plaintree links at the airport as well. They had been using
a Plaintree legacy product for the past 4 years that ran so reliably that
they had almost forgotten it was in use in their system. The original
Plaintree link has been used for the last several years to connect the
parking lot concession to the main terminal and will continue to do so for
many years to come.
The third link used at the airport provides the connection to transmit
pictures via a webcam to the Airport’s website. Future plans include using
Plaintree’s WAVEBRIDGE link to continue transmitting pictures to the
Innovation Centre when it is completed sometime next year.
The OIA Expansion Project will turn the Ottawa International Airport into
one of the most modern and efficient airports in the world and Plaintree
Systems is now part of this great endeavour.
More feature installs ...
