Turkey is set to become home to the first ever 'completely digital' airport in the world. Istanbul International Airport has formally unveiled its construction plans that will see it become the envy of other airports all over the world.
A spokesman for Istanbul Airport announced that it has agreed a deal with Swiss firm R&M. Istanbul will deploy the Swiss developer and manufacturers cabling infrastructure as a high-performance platform for its mission-critical IT systems.
It has been disclosed that construction on the first phase of the airport will commence in 2018 with the opening of two new runways and a terminal that will have a capacity to hold 90 million passengers. When the first phase is complete it will then 'officially' become the world's first 'completely digital' airport in the world, and the inaugural recipient of the TIER 3 certification.
The Swiss company aims to finish the installation of the cabling infrastructure by the first quarter of 2018. It has been reported that on completion of the first phase, the manufacturer will have supplied a total length of 4,500km of copper and over 1,600km of fiber-optic cables.
The cabling network produces high-performance and will support the key airport systems including ICT infrastructure for security, police and customs. In addition to this, each respective system has required customization of the cabling including specific color coding.
The innovative project is being spearheaded by IGA, and the organization selected a total of 45 different products from the Swiss company R&M. The products range from high-density fiber cable management solutions as well as its flagship automated infrastructure management solution.
CIO at IGA, Ersin Inankul said the airport will serve as a 'technological benchmark and added that his organization was engaged in developing lots of other innovative solutions for the Istanbul Airport. He said, "We started our work with the cabling as it is the basis for all running infrastructure. The announcement system, fire alarms, cameras, card access systems, flight management, ATC systems will run on R&M's fire-resistant copper cables."
It has been claimed that when the project has been completed the world's first 'completely digital' new airport will host more than 350 flying destinations with annual passengers numbers expected to grow to around 200 million. When all four phases have been completed the airport will boast a total of six runways, 250 aircraft and parking facilities for over 18,000 cars.
Michael Riva, CEO of R&M said, "We have more than 50 years of experience in the ICT market. Mega-projects such as at the İstanbul New Airport give us the opportunity to create real added value by developing customized products meeting the specific needs of the customer. Cabling infrastructure typically features 20-year refresh cycles, so the reliability of the network is extremely dependent on quality tested products. For a 24-hours business the highest reliability is essential as any downtime can significantly impact operations and passengers."