The Olympics aside for a moment, with the development of China's economy as it is, the demand upon civil aviation is increasing regardless in Beijing District. Despite the huge expansions already underway at BCIA, a report published by SAVE International, Spring 2007 shows a sharp contradiction will emerge between transportation demand and the capacity of BCIA. Zenitel and joint venture company BNSC (Beijing Nera Stentofon Communication Equipment Co.) are therefore following the Beijing airport project with interest which if it continues as predicted, will see one airport becoming domestic and one international.

In 2008, BCIA's Terminal 3 will help fulfills Beijing's Olympic goal of 'One world, one Dream' and Zenitel and BNSC will help them achieve this.

To ensure the smooth reception of millions of passengers to and from the airport in the run up to the Olympics tourism trade, Zenitel and BNSC are, together with other appointed contractors and suppliers, meeting a brief to move passengers quickly and easily to their destination, whilst catering for large numbers and providing flexibility for future growth. Zenitel's Stentofon AlphaCom E, upgraded into Terminal 2 of BCIA during uarter two of last year, meets all these requirements and more, assisting in protecting life and property and helping facilitate safe and secure movement of staff and visitors, with simplified operation.

BCIA's new Terminal 3 will open for trial operation in 2008 using eight AlphaCom E26 exchanges and more 1000 Zenitel stations. AlphaCom E26 is Zenitel's largest IP multiservice platform supporting many hundreds of user terminals. Upgrading to AlphaCom E clearly provides more capacity, but this integrated platform offers additional benefits too. Using IP, AlphaCom E provides data communication between all exchanges, existing audio links can remain and new links can be added, and alternative routing between the traditional network and the new IP one can be established.

Integration was a key factor for BCIA. The current AlphaCom and AlphaCom E systems are used for PA gate announcements, gate and check-in desk communications, communication with security staff, baggage areas, airline back offices and more. The new system being installed by BNSC will connect with the existing critical communication systems at Terminals 1 and 2, and to create one cohesive system, will extend its integration to the security system, the information integration system, the master clock system, access control, public address and a PABX system via SIP trunking. In the future, integration to Cisco, TETRA radio and CCTV can be made, any number of features and solutions can be added when required and special applications can be created by interfacing to other 3rd party systems as annual passenger throughput increases.

Of the ten exchange modules already installed, alternate routing between the exchanges allows calls to complete, even if one route is used to its full capacity or a link is inadvertently broken. Operational communications is critical for the smooth running of any airport: airport staff and security cannot reply on communication systems that almost always work, it simply must work - always - and be a resource they can trust unconditionally. With fast and reliable set up, every Stentofon call gets through, which is most important during the busiest periods. High quality audio allows for efficient short communication further reducing stress and workload due to misunderstood messages.

BCIA is already seeing about 1200 conversation setups each hour in a quiet period. When it is busy, during severe weather or in peak travel periods, this figure can be several times as much. Each exchange is capable of handling 60,000 conversations in one hour. As the system employs a distributed architecture the total call handling capacity is many times more.

With China entering the World Trade Organisation, Beijing hosting the Olympics in 2008, and a number of airport development and expansion projects being considered, exciting times are ahead for the People's Republic of China. Zenitel is pleased to play its part in a successful economy and China's 'One World, One Dream'.