Airport Operational Data Base (AODB) 

The Airport Operational Database (AODB) is the central database where all relevant data will be entered for the processing necessary to manage the operation of the airport. The AODB shall be primarily used for recording of flight movements with the activities and resources required to process the aircraft while at the Main Terminal Building. The AODB System will communicate with other systems through the Information Broker (IB).

  • Interfaces Include (partial):

Building Management System

Common work results for Communications

Communication Rooms Equipment Fittings

Computer and Server Equipment

Local Area Network Equipment

Storage Area Network

Flight Information Display System

Baggage Reconciliation System

Common Use Passenger Processing System

Common Use Self Service System

Local Departure Control System

Travel Document Authorisation System

Information Broker

Resource Management System

Information Kiosk

Baggage Labelling and Tracking System

Public Address and Mass Notification Systems

Clock Systems

Security Access Control System

Baggage Handling System

  • Goals set out in Information Communication Telecommunication (ICT) Strategic Plan
  • Airport Operational Database (AODB) with Information / Message Broker / Service Oriented Architecture (IB/MB/SOA) and Data Warehouse

Various independent existing and planned/future systems at the airport will be integrated using a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) model, based on an Airport Operation Database (AODB) and Message Broker/Application Server (Middleware) that as a minimum supports data exchange via extensible markup language (XML).

The AODB will serve as a central data repository for all airport related data, including flight schedules, baggage system information, resource allocation and resource usage, collecting data from the various systems to facilitate exchange between them, and storing that data.

The AODB will contain significant amounts of data which can be used for generating historical reports, predicting future needs, analysing operational efficiency, analysing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and supporting any number of other management requirements.

The AODB will be at the core of Airport operations and it will drive many critical systems (e.g. Flight and Baggage Information Displays) and it will interface with many other systems (e.g. Financial Systems). The principal aim of the database is to hold this significant amount of data in a single secure location and share the information with systems and applications that require it.

A commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) database product (such as Oracle) will be used to allow data to be extracted by common report-generating products (such as Crystal Reports), and can be easily accessed via software developed using tools such as the Microsoft .NET series.

At a minimum, the middleware will support message brokering, web services and application services using XML messaging. It will be possible to create interfaces and business process automation using either tool provided by the middleware vendor, or using those provided by third parties.

The AODB is vital for daily operations and it provides information to critical operations systems. It is important not to overload the system with unessential queries for general reporting and analysis purposes. For such cases a data warehousing system would be useful to implement.

The data warehouse should be structured to facilitate timely retrieval of information for reporting purposes. In addition it should support queries from non-critical systems. The data warehouse should also replicate information provided in the AODB as well as be a repository for historical data.

Furthermore, the data warehouse could help facilitate the transition from old software applications to the planned new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution by sorting and standardising the existing data based on an acceptable and consistent airport wide data dictionary.