You won’t have a problem finding a Wi-Fi signal at airports in Spain. The 23 airports run by the Spanish Airport Authority called AENA will be blanketed with mesh networks run by CN&C using multi-radio equipment from Strix Systems, both indoors and out.
The networks will do far more than provide Internet access to travelers, however. Wireless will help power such airport mission-critical applications as baggage control and remote parking, as well as everything from checking in or out or verifying both people and property as they travel through the airport.
Four airports are already set up, including Madrid Barajas International Airport, which has 1,000 Strix radios [corrected 6/29/06 – there’s multiple radios per node] installed — as well as Barcelona, Bilbao and Malaga (most of the other airports need only 10 to 50 nodes to cover, according to Strix). Coverage areas will include all parts of the airport, from the gates to the runway tarmac.
CN&C will wholesale access to the network to Internet service providers, and some have already been picked but are not announced yet. CN&C is also providing training to airport personnel on using the network.
“We’re seeing a lot of interest, well beyond what the average application for this type of network would usually be,” says Kirby Russell, Director of Product Marketing for Strix. He mentions sensors and video surveillance cameras with alarms as just the start of the possibilities.
The other 19 airports should go live over the next year and half.