Located two miles north of downtown San Jose in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, San Jose International Airport (SJC) is a completely self-supporting enterprise, owned and operated by the City of San Jose. Passenger totals currently exceed 10 million per year with seventeen major commercial airlines operating at the airport averaging 347 commercial and 460 general aviation departures and landings daily. The airport generates 71,249 jobs in the San Jose area.

As in any airport scenario, the San Jose Airport viewed reliability and safety as a priority for any upgrades to its facility. In addition, like all of Silicon Valley, space was a large consideration. The control system needed to be flexible and efficient enough to monitor the entire airport complex, but at the same time make use of existing space limitations. LonMark Partner member Electronic Systems USA was selected to provide new LONWORKS based interoperable DDC controls and integration services to bring the various building services under a single system.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]Until recently, the airport's communication center used multiple keyboards, screens and operating systems to monitor the entire airport complex. In addition to the automation system that monitored airfield lighting, heating and air-conditioning, radio and telephone communications, the fire alarms, security and access control, and emergency generators were each stand alone systems. ESUSA's installation of its NexSys LonWorks based DDC system tied all of the disparate systems together. As part of this solution, ESUSA also made the decision to use a fiber optic backbone developed by LonMark Sponsor member Raytheon Control-by-Light. Use of the fiber routers created built-in safety features invaluable to a facility such as an airport. Fiber is inherently tamper proof and immune to electrical interference, high voltages, crosstalk and lightning, especially important in systems where connections between buildings trace the path of power cables, or are exposed to high-energy fields such as radar and communication links.

ESUSA's UNITY was installed at the airport to consolidate more than 2,000 points from existing Honeywell Delta HVAC, lighting and fire panels with ESUSA NexSys LONWORKS based controllers. The LONWORKS based NexSys controllers were installed in remote facilities throughout the SJC complex utilizing Raytheon's fiber optic communications to provide a noise free environment. Raytheon developed the industry's first fiber optic products based on Echelon LONWORKS interoperable standards that lets a single fiber optic cable communicate in both directions.

The Raytheon Fiber Optic/Twisted Pair LONWORKS Router (FTR) implements the full set of LONWORKS router functions: configured router, learning router, bridge, or repeater. It can be used to create links and backbones that connect copper LONWORKS subsystems. Raytheon has added reliability features, including ring redundancy and link signal strength monitoring.

The result is a cost-effective, truly open architecture networking solution that will enable the San Jose Airport to accommodate expansion well into the 21st century.

As California's Silicon Valley continues to be the birthplace of "the next big thing", the airport will experience ever increasing traffic and need for expansion. By choosing an open interoperable LonMark control networking solution, future growth for the facility will be simple, flexible and reliable, allowing the airport to continue to serve its constantly growing marketplace.

For more information about the products used in the San Jose International Airport project visit the website of ESUSA and Raytheon Control-by-Light at www.esua.com and www.control-by-light.com.

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