Probably not. But these are the words of Dervilla Mitchell, head of design management at Heathrow's Terminal 5 and director of Arup, the global business and design consultancy. Despite the initial problems that plagued Terminal 5 and gave it such a bad reputation for a short time (problems that, truth be told, had nothing to do with the technological infrastructure), the comment now seems entirely reasonable.
Now that Terminal 5 is fully operational (which means it has disappeared from the front pages of newspapers and TV screens), it's possible to appreciate the extraordinary nature of this project, whose cornerstone is a massive technological infrastructure that has functioned flawlessly from day one.
A key aspect of this infrastructure is the structured cabling system and the IT and network systems that depend on it.
BAA commissioned its infrastructure provider, Virgin Media (formerly NTL:Telewest), to design and implement the infrastructure in Terminal 5, which required a vast array of enterprise network applications based on fiber optic and copper connectivity solutions. According to Kevin McLoughlin, Virgin's program manager, TE Connectivity was the best solution for this critical function, and they strongly recommended it to BAA for use throughout the project.
The result is already underway:
TE Connectivity's comprehensive network solution, based on its TrueNet® structured cabling system, combines fiber optic and copper connectivity with best-in-class cable management products. It enables a wide range of voice and data applications, covering everything from data delivery for passenger information displays, IT systems at check-in counters and baggage handling security, to point-of-sale units across the terminal's extensive planned network of retail and service outlets.
Heathrow Terminal 5 is not the first project where TE Connectivity and Virgin Media have developed the design and cabling system specifications for a prestigious airport terminal: they had previously collaborated successfully on the construction of Hong Kong's renowned new airport. The two companies believe this experience proved invaluable in creating the right cabling solutions for T5.
The complexity of the Terminal 5 program is staggering. Virgin Media, one of BAA's first three systems providers, led the Systems Project, which encompassed numerous applications such as fire systems, BCMS, and systems integration, but especially communications and security throughout the terminal. The Communications and Security Project itself was divided into 15 sub-projects and had a total budget of £100 million. The Terminal 5 Systems Project, in all its vast scope, was just one of 18 major projects in the construction of the terminal.
The statistics for Terminal 5 are also impressive. When fully completed in 2010, Heathrow will have a capacity of 90 million passengers annually, further cementing its position as the world's busiest international airport. The total cost of Terminal 5 has been estimated at £4.3 billion.
Construction began in the summer of 2002 following the longest planning study in British history. Terminal 5 is much more than just a building. Apart from the main building, T5A, it also includes T5B, a satellite building providing additional capacity and aircraft parking aprons above the departure piers, and T5C, a second satellite building scheduled to open in 2010. The three buildings are linked by a Transit Control System (TTS), consisting of trains that take passengers directly to the gates. Other elements of the project include a six-platform rail station beneath the main terminal, extensions to the London Underground's Piccadilly Line and the Heathrow Express, a road linking T5 to the M25 motorway, a new 87-meter-high air traffic control tower, and 60 aircraft parking aprons. The total area, 260 hectares, is equivalent to approximately 280 football fields. The Airside Road Tunnel is 1.3 km long, making it the seventh longest tunnel in the UK. The steel used in the roofs weighs 17,000 tons, and the weight of the internal structure, at 25,000 tons, is equivalent to 148 Boeing 747s.
For passengers, there are 96 self-service kiosks, over 90 express baggage check-in points, 54 standard check-in counters, and 11 baggage carousels with a 17 km route capable of processing 12,000 bags per hour. More than 1,700 km of electrical cable have been used, and 20,000 13-amp sockets have been installed.
TE Connectivity provides equally impressive figures regarding the structured cabling infrastructure: it supplied over 700 km of fiber optic cable, mostly single-mode, but also OM2 multimode. Fiber optic cables are composed of several cores. Adding the total equivalent of fiber installed in Terminal 5 brings the astonishing figure to 42,000 km (slightly more than the distance around the equator!). 3,500 fiber optic trays were required to interconnect the backbone fiber.
As for copper cabling, TE Connectivity supplied and installed approximately 3,500 km of Category 6 UTP cable; 250 km of Category 6 S/STP shielded cable for the baggage handling system; and 270 km of Category 3 and Category 5e multipair cable – the equivalent length of single-pair cable would be 14,000 km. More than 55,000 Category 6 jacks, 3,500 fiber optic trays, 80,000 fiber optic pigtails, and 4,000 Category 6 copper patch panels have also been installed.
The outdoor fiber optic cables are TE Connectivity's steel-wire shielded cables, which have already proven their effectiveness. Following the recent emergency landing of flight BA03 at Heathrow, the aircraft impacted airport services. The only service that remained operational after the incident was the one carried by the shielded fiber optic cable supplied by TE Connectivity.
This entire infrastructure encompasses functions such as a CCTV system with more than 1,500 cameras, 1,100 secure access control points, a wireless local area network with 750 access points, and 2,800 telephones based on a hybrid architecture of analog, digital, and IP telephony.
These figures clearly demonstrate why T5 is one of the largest projects of its kind that TE Connectivity has undertaken. TE Connectivity's cabling infrastructure supports virtually all the systems shown in Figure 1, including the TrueNet® backbone fiber that serves the radio and cellular systems.
The application areas listed under Buildings in Figure 1 utilize TE Connectivity cabling, with fiber in the backbone and Category 6 copper for horizontal cabling: LAN and Wireless LAN (WLAN), voice, CCTV, Access Control System (ACS), and Security Search; while TV uses only the fiber in the backbone. The other three areas—Building Systems Integration (BSI), Airport Operating Systems (AOS), and Displays, which provide flight and baggage information—also utilize the TrueNet® cabling infrastructure.
In the T5 project, the Buildings section encompasses the three terminals (T5A/B/C). T5C is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in 2010. It will offer increased passenger capacity and aircraft parking aprons above the boarding piers.
The Ground Area includes the multi-story parking garage, a power center, and several small auxiliary buildings. The Parking Areas section includes the open aprons, the areas around the buildings where aircraft park for passenger disembarkation, and the passenger entrances to the buildings. Cabling infrastructure has also been provided to all these aprons to ensure standardized communications and networking capabilities.
Other supported systems include pre-conditioning air, a new technique for cooling the air on board an aircraft while passengers are boarding. This was previously done using the aircraft's engines, but the new systems now pump cooled air into the aircraft. The following equipment is also supported: lighting controls; building management and control systems—devices such as fan-assisted coolers and air handling units; meters to record light and energy usage; various types of digital media (other than TV); and a network clock that ensures the accuracy of all clocks in the terminal.
Planning and installing the cabling and other infrastructure elements for all the systems described so far and making them operational would already be a complex task, but equally demanding is the one indicated on the right side of Figure 1, titled "Integration of ART (Airside Road Tunnel) and HAL (Heathrow Airport Limited)."
Integration is the key word. Terminal 5 offers increased capacity for Heathrow, and to ensure its effectiveness, it was essential that all existing systems could be seamlessly integrated with the new elements developed for Terminal 5. Although many of the functional systems implemented for Terminal 5 were already present elsewhere in the airport, the infrastructure, hardware, and software installed in the new and existing systems were often different.
Integration was especially important for applications like CCTV and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition), which needed to work seamlessly together. Airport staff must be able to use these systems to monitor and control operations from the airport's control center.
Achieving this objective in an efficient and integrated manner presented a significant challenge. The second element of ART and HAL integration (see Figure 1) was equally, if not more, complex. BAA uses approximately 300 different software applications that had to be implemented in Terminal 5, while the Airport Operational Safety Unit (AOSU) is a vital operations center for the runway area, controlling the movement of all non-air traffic on the runways, from maintenance equipment to construction and bird deterrent equipment. Again, all of this infrastructure relies on structured cabling (fiber or copper backbone) or Category 6 internal horizontal cabling.
To achieve the necessary integration, the physical layer of the network first had to be designed in terms of fiber and copper, ensuring sufficient flexibility and protection. Once implemented, the core network systems could be installed on this cabling. Next, the correct operation of the connections had to be verified, guaranteeing that traffic could be viewed and controlled from any end.
According to Kevin McLoughlin, Virgin's program manager, "Looking at the project as a whole, it's clear how difficult it is to determine in advance what equipment will be needed."
He added, "For example, during the design phase, there was a huge increase in the number of Category 6 horizontal wall plates we had to supply. We originally started with around 12,000 wall plates across the airport, but by the time we finished our production design and began the actual implementation, that number had risen to 55,000."
Unforeseen circumstances are precisely what happened when Terminal 5 first opened. However, according to McLoughlin, these initial problems had nothing to do with the technological infrastructure. “While it’s true there were some unfortunate operational issues at the opening of Terminal 5, the first day was a complete success from a systems perspective. Our IT and infrastructure systems were fully stable, as they had been for some time, and their performance was up to par to meet user requirements. We were satisfied! BAA was happy with the IT systems, and now that Terminal 5 is fully operational, it’s considered a success.”
