The digital infrastructure of Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL) has now been provided with an “ultra-redundant” network by Eurofiber. 560 kilometers of fiber-optic connections have been deployed to provide connectivity for Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Eindhoven Airport, among others.
Of these hundreds of kilometers, 25 kilometers were laid via excavation. Four separate 10 Gb/s routes ensure maximum redundancy, so that LVNL’s critical function is never compromised. The project took 10 months to be realized and required 50 engineers, network architects and other experts to work closely together.
In total, LVNL controls six civilian airports, in addition to seven military ones. The six airports benefiting from the new civilian network are Schiphol, Eindhoven, Rotterdam The Hague, Eelde (Groningen), Maastricht Aachen and Lelystad. For thirteen years they used the previous network, but it is now due for replacement.
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Mustang 2.0
Thanks to the new infrastructure, Mustang 2.0, LVNL’s revamped data communications network, is also making its debut. “We are going from a two-lane N-road, to an eight-lane highway,” says Ronald Dubbeldam, head of the Systems & Infrastructure department. “The system we had was in need of replacement. Looking to the future, it was important to lay down an innovative and robust network now that we can build on in the coming years.”
Every airport over the Netherlands
Schiphol is considered a critical hub for international air traffic, while LVNL also assists countless European and intercontinental flights over Dutch airspace. As any interruption for any reason threatens flights from taking off or landing, the choice was made for practically the safest workable option from Eurofiber and partners Spie, BAM Telecom and Proximus NXT. According to Eurofiber, the new digital infrastructure is “the perfect balance between the very highest availability, standardization and scalability, enabling critical operations to continue working seamlessly at all times and making it possible to deal flexibly with current and future data flows.”
“The requirements LVNL set for the robustness of the network with the guarantee that it is always up and running has led to Eurofiber building an ultra-redundant network for us, so that we can rely on it always being available,’ says Michel van Dijk, Project Manager Infra at LVNL.
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