The Kansai International Airport (KIX) has deployed new access points to provide free public Wi-Fi service for international travelers.
KIX has installed over 100 Ruckus Wireless access points, centrally managed using two Ruckus WLAN controllers, to effectively cover high-density public areas throughout the airport where travelers gather. The new network serves more than 50,000 travelers every day.
Situated on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka Bay, KIX connects Japan’s Kansai area to the world. It handled more than 140,000 planes and over 19 million travelers in 2013. Among three airports located in the Kansai area, only KIX has regular international flights, and thus is contributing to an overall increasing use of Japan’s airports by international travelers.
Tablet and smartphone adoption in Japan have been undergoing explosive growth. Tablet ownership is expected to grow by 164%, from 7.13 million in 2013 to 11.7 million in 2016, and smartphone subscribership is expected to exceed 100 million in 2019. Also, usage of Wi-Fi is growing as consumers are accessing more multi-media content, and as more applications are transitioning to the cloud.
Kansai International Airport first offered free public Wi-Fi service to travelers with autonomously managed Wi-Fi access points. Due to the explosive growth of mobile devices and travelers’ increasing desire to be able to stay online everywhere, it soon became unable to keep up with demand. Also, the Airport found it difficult to monitor these legacy access points and usage.
Therefore, they reached a conclusion that a new WLAN network infrastructure solution was an essential amenity for international aviation hubs like KIX in order to best serve its travelers. KIX began their new network project in 2012.
Currently, the new network is being used by airport users and visitors for free public Wi-Fi access. However, KIX is discussing plans to utilize it for airport staff use for various airport operations functions. For example, tablets are currently used at airport information centers and counters, and KIX is considering connecting these tablets to existing operational systems through the new network for more seamless internal operations, in addition to providing things like flight information to travelers.