The INtelligent Airport (TINA)
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Abstract
Diverse applications are expected to appear in the future with complex and often varying service requirements, traffic profiles and user expectations. These will require extremely advanced adaptive computing and communication systems to provide users with mobile, secure and automatic means of conducting business. A prime application area is in international travel which continues to grow supported by a significant investment in infrastructure, such as Heathrow Terminal 5.An intelligent, adaptive, self-organising wired/wireless infrastructure is essential in this environment. It is anticipated that the considerable growth in the complexity of this infrastructure will not just be due to the proliferation of established fixed equipment such as wireless base stations, surveillance cameras, security detection equipment, display and terminal equipment. The requirements will also be for a much wider deployment of more compact portable equipment, for example, location and control equipment on a wide range of transportation equipment. Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags supported by a transparent optical-RF network can be used to sense, locate and track an array of objects including luggage, mobile assets and commercial goods and can provide additional features such as boarding pass auto-tags and access control tags. The RFID tags will operate at low data rates, typically 64 kbit/s, but an airport environment can be expected to contain a few million of them. Mobile biometric sensors will be widely deployed in this environment providing advanced features. A range of fixed and mobile terminals will provide additional security measures such as chemical detection and analysis, while other terminals, fixed and mobile, will support passenger information and entertainment services on transit. The infrastructure will support an array of personal passenger and staff wireless media rich devices. The wired/wireless network envisaged will thus be huge and complex, supporting perhaps 10 million information sources, with an anticipated peak aggregate data rate of order 500 Gbit/s in a relatively local access environment. This is beyond the capability of any current network and research is needed to understand the principles upon which an effective system could be constructed.As this is such an ambitious and multidisciplinary project, a collaborative programme is proposed. The project has strong industrial involvement and support from Laing O'Rourke who will provide the application context, share design experience, user requirements and architectural constraints and Marconi who will contribute expertise in complex communication system design. At the outline proposal stage, we received feedback from EPSRC that they would welcome additional collaborations with those involved in airport operations. We are delighted that, in response, BAA and Boeing have agreed to become involved in the project, and within UCL links have been made to Dr Paul Brennan, who will contribute substantial knowledge of RfID, being involved in a major European project in the area. Finally we have additionally sought to involve equipment companies including Motorola and Agilent to ensure that we can receive expert advice across all areas within the project.
Organisations
- University College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- TE Connectivity (United Kingdom) (Collaboration)
- Heathrow Airport Holdings (Collaboration)
- Motorola (United Kingdom) (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- McWane Technology (United Kingdom) (Collaboration)
- Boeing (Collaboration)
- Laing O'Rourke (United Kingdom) (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- RED-M (Collaboration)
- Arup Group (Collaboration)
- Affini Technology (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
People |
ORCID iD |
Alwyn Seeds (Principal Investigator) | |
Paul Brennan (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Ismail T
(2007)
High-Dynamic-Range Wireless-Over-Fiber Link Using Feedforward Linearization
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
A Seeds
(2007)
Radio Frequency over Fibre Systems
Liu C
(2007)
Full-Duplex DOCSIS/WirelessDOCSIS Fiber-Radio Network Employing Packaged AFPMs as Optical/Electrical Transducers
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Ismail T
(2008)
Transmission of Gb/s DPSK Millimeter-Wave Wireless Data Over Fiber Using Low-Cost Uncooled Devices With Remote 40-GHz Local Oscillator Delivery
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Chuang C
(2008)
IEEE 802.11a Data Over Fiber Transmission Using Electromagnetic Bandgap Photonic Antenna With Integrated Asymmetric Fabry-PÉrot Modulator/Detector
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Brennan P
(2011)
Determination of Sweep Linearity Requirements in FMCW Radar Systems Based on Simple Voltage-Controlled Oscillator Sources
in IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems
Description | Our contribution to this grant aimed to devise techniques for the location of people within airports and similar spaces. We devised a method utilising wireless over fibre systems to detect the position of active RF identification (RFID) tags with an accuracy of about 0.5m. This technique was demonstrated experimentally including demonstration that errors due to multi path propagation could be made small. We also developed linearisation techniques for wireless over fibre systems that enable multiple signals to be carried over a single infrastructure without distortion. |
Exploitation Route | The active tag location technique could be developed into a commercial product. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Construction Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Electronics Government Democracy and Justice Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Retail |
URL | http://www.ee.ucl.ac.uk/photonics |
Description | The work on tracking of Radio Frequency identification (RFID) tags using wireless over fibre systems has been taken up by industry including new companies, such as Pervasid. |
First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics |
Impact Types | Societal Economic |
Description | European Union Framework 7 |
Amount | £386,260 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 257539 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 05/2009 |
End | 11/2013 |
Description | Arup Group Ltd |
Organisation | Arup Group |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | BAA Airports Ltd |
Organisation | Heathrow Airport Holdings |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | Boeing |
Organisation | Boeing |
Country | United States |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | Laing O'Rourke plc |
Organisation | Laing O'Rourke |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | Motorola |
Organisation | Motorola Ltd |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | RED-M |
Organisation | RED-M |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | Tyco Electronics |
Organisation | Tyco Electronics |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | Zinwave Ltd |
Organisation | Zinwave Ltd |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2006 |
Title | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TRANSPORTING MULTIPLE SIGNALS OVER OPTICAL FIBER |
Description | A method and apparatus for transporting three or more radio signals of the same frequency, such as multiple input multiple output (MIMO) radio signals, over optical fiber on a single optical carrier by frequency mixing two such MIMO radio signals at a time with a single low-frequency local oscillator (LO) signal is disclosed. |
IP Reference | WO2010035010 |
Protection | Patent application published |
Year Protection Granted | 2010 |
Licensed | Commercial In Confidence |
Impact | Influence on MIMO over fibre. |