Background

When the owners of Ireland’s premier airport began constructing Terminal 2, they recognised the critical need for reliable mobile coverage for both visitors and staff. Known for providing top-tier service, they aimed to maintain seamless wireless connectivity across every facet of airport operations, from airside to landside, within terminal buildings, and throughout operational and 'back of house' areas.

Given our global reputation as a leading provider of regulatory-compliant and licensed DAS technologies to numerous large-scale venues, we were the obvious partner for the Dublin Airport Authority.

Challenges and considerations

Having passed the 30 million passengers per annum milestone in 2018, Dublin Airport’s construction of a new and improved second terminal was only ever going to lead to an even greater upswing in customer numbers and footfall. International travellers are no different from any other demographic in their need to remain constantly connected via their smartphones, laptops and every other type of digital personal comms device. So the demand for airport mobile coverage was also set to increase and keep on increasing.

It is important to draw the distinction here between the provision of Wi-Fi as a service within buildings as opposed to cellular mobile phone coverage. Both are wireless technologies but very different in form and delivery to customers.

Aligned with Mobile Network Operators' commitment to delivering a superior user experience, our first consideration was to develop a unified solution tailored to meet the expectations of discerning travellers. This solution necessitated an active Multi-Operator Distributed Antenna System (DAS) to ensure comprehensive coverage and capacity across the entire airport premises.

Physically, the new terminal building spans from basement-level corridors and lined storage areas to a multi-tier passenger concourse with vaulted ceilings, posing a distinct challenge in radio planning environments. The main aim of the project brief was to:

• complete the design, installation and maintenance of a fully operational Multi-Operator DAS
• achieve 95% floor area coverage
• deliver the capacity to handle the anticipated increased customer throughput
• ensure expansion options for anticipated future growth

minimise the visual impact of the DAS hardware on the terminal’s aesthetic by effectively ‘hiding’ the lowest profile (yet highest performing) components discreetly within the building’s design via close cooperation with the architects

Another critical aspect of mobile coverage was addressing security concerns. Projects involving airport facilities require strict adherence to security protocols, rigorous safety measures and thorough screening and clearance of all personnel involved. With over a decade of experience operating in highly sensitive environments, we understand the heightened security demands firsthand. Our track record demonstrates our reliability and trustworthiness as a preferred partner for installation and maintenance services.

Solutions and delivery

The mobile coverage system design fundamentally began with an expandable multi-operator solution. The sheer capacity requirements of a venue of this scale dictated that Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) be used to provide the service to the active DAS. The use of base-station hardware was sanctioned from the beginning to ensure the system could provide both 3G and 4G (and ultimately 5G) technologies to users for all network operators using a common infrastructure of the single DAS.

The size of the building demanded that a fibre installation be used to connect remote locations within the building to the central head-end hardware. The head-end hardware catered for the system intelligence and several antennae within reasonable cable distances to the main equipment room. The use of fibre-fed remote units to service antennas at a distance from the main equipment room is a typical type of architectural design which harnesses the flexibility of fibre technology without the losses experienced over long RF cable runs.

The Terminal 2 DAS ensures seamless coverage between the external macro site and the internal networks, preventing dropped calls and any overloading of the external macro sites in response to fluctuating capacity demands. The airport is a large focal point for roaming traffic as ‘foreign’ mobiles land at the airport, and are then switched on to immediately start searching for available networks. The DAS provides a good quality signal strength to capture these mobiles and gives the network operators the best opportunity to hold these roaming customers as they move into the airport building, toward landside areas and into Dublin city.

The use of DAS in such buildings also extends the battery life of mobile devices. By ensuring a robust signal, DAS reduces the power consumption required to maintain excellent signal quality and uninterrupted coverage.