A mind-blowing revolution - the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things is mind-blowing. So too are its implications for a connected air transport industry. Its potential business value in the air transport industry is not even fully comprehensible in these nascent days of the IoT phenomenon. But one thing’s for sure, the air transport industry needs to be at the forefront of this revolution in connectivity. Let me set the scene with a few mind-bending examples ready to impact our everyday lives, such as the fork with a sensor to measure how much you eat. Or the sensor-equipped cup to gauge how much you drink, and the toothbrush that makes sure you’ve brushed properly. It won’t be long before we’ll be able to know remotely what our fridge stock levels are and what food we need to replenish, or what our exercise levels are thanks to shoe insoles that tell us where we’ve been, how many steps we’ve taken, and a whole lot more. We’re already seeing the demise of door keys and the rise of Bluetooth-based door locks. And now we see the connected baby bouncing on the not-too-distant horizon. As another new frontier for the IoT, Bluetooth and wireless-equipped pacifiers to bottles and connected onesies will track a baby’s movements, monitor temperature and heartbeat, and a range of other activities.Sensors every where
The message in all of this is simple: there’ll be sensors everywhere. Anything that can be sensed will be sensed, some times even if it doesn’t make sense. It’ll be all pervasive, embracing our health, our houses and cars, and our work places. And at an enterprise level, of course, sensors will transform industry practices, managing all physical things every where, be it in our manufacturing plants, the electronic grid, or indeed, our aircraft and airports.
Connected aircraft
The connected aircraft is just one area where
SITA has forged ahead with a major initiative to unleash the potential of ubiquitous connectivity. SITA’s research of the world’s airlines and airports shows that IT spends remains strong. Airlines’ spend as a percentage of revenue will rise to an estimated 3.30% or US$24.3 billion in 2017. For airports, the rise is to an expected 5.05% for this year or US$8.43 billion. Looking ahead to 2018 over 70% of airlines and 88% of airports are expecting IT spend to increase or remain at the same levels as today. Airport Connect Open enables airports, airlines and their handling agents to access their IT applications in real-time on dedicated or shared common-use equipment. New generation aircraft will be flying data centers, and by 2022, commercial fleets will include 10,000 of them. They’ll stay connected in flight and on the ground, and they’ll depend on IT and data exchange to reach optimum performance.
These are early days, but with the IoT becoming a reality, we can look forward to a game-changing and real-time revolution in the way we do things in the air transport industry BLE's arrival And, of course, there’s mobility, making for ever connected and informed crew and passengers in the air and on the ground. But now as part of this revolution we’re seeing more things in the airport being connected up too, like buildings, equipment, bags, trolleys, tugs – basically all the 'things' that could emit a status. So why’s this all happening now? The answer is Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which is what beacon technology is about. To connect things with Wi-Fi you needed a power cord because it uses a lot of energy, and you can’t have a lot of sensors across the airport if it means power cords and Ethernet cables every where. In the airport environment, sensors, which can be built into beacons, can help control the assets and environment in a way that just was n’t practical before. BLE now allows connectivity everywhere with very low power usage, driven by batteries that last for years.
Proximity
In the SITA Lab, we ve been doing some trail blazing in this are a, with several pilots and trials looking at what's possible in the trend referred to as proximity, where sensors detect the presence of nearby objects. Because of the advances, it's an area ripe for progress. From our pioneering work it’s clear to see proximity is poised to hugely impact industry operations. We’ll get insights into passenger flow and behavior at the airport like we ve never seen before, from new data sets generated by linking airport and airline technology to passengers’ mobile devices.
Sensorization
In these early days, these are telling advances as the march of 'sensorization' continues. With the IoT becoming a reality, we can look forward to a game-changing and real-time revolution in the way we do things in the air transport industry.
Anything that can be sensed will be sensed, sometimes even if it doesn’t make sense. It’ll be all pervasive, embracing our health, our houses and cars, and our work places
These are early days, but with the IoT becoming a reality, we can look forward to a game-changing and real-time revolution in the way we do things in the air transport industry BLE's arrival And, of course, there’s mobility, making for ever connected and informed crew and passengers in the air and on the ground. But now as part of this revolution we’re seeing more things in the airport being connected up too, like buildings, equipment, bags, trolleys, tugs – basically all the 'things' that could emit a status. So why’s this all happening now? The answer is Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which is what beacon technology is about. To connect things with Wi-Fi you needed a power cord because it uses a lot of energy, and you can’t have a lot of sensors across the airport if it means power cords and Ethernet cables every where. In the airport environment, sensors, which can be built into beacons, can help control the assets and environment in a way that just was n’t practical before. BLE now allows connectivity everywhere with very low power usage, driven by batteries that last for years.
Proximity
In the SITA Lab, we ve been doing some trail blazing in this are a, with several pilots and trials looking at what's possible in the trend referred to as proximity, where sensors detect the presence of nearby objects. Because of the advances, it's an area ripe for progress. From our pioneering work it’s clear to see proximity is poised to hugely impact industry operations. We’ll get insights into passenger flow and behavior at the airport like we ve never seen before, from new data sets generated by linking airport and airline technology to passengers’ mobile devices.
Sensorization
In these early days, these are telling advances as the march of 'sensorization' continues. With the IoT becoming a reality, we can look forward to a game-changing and real-time revolution in the way we do things in the air transport industry.
