For several months, detailed and meticulous planning, testing and optimizing has been going on almost round the clock. ­
As a result, Fraport has now been able to replace the Credential Management ­System in use at Frankfurt Airport with a new system from Primion Technology.

Fraport is one of the leading international companies in the airport business and, in addition to covering the full range of airport services, it is active in airport retailing and real-estate development. As a full-service provider in the field of airport management, operations run on four continents through investments and subsidiaries. Fraport is the owner and operator of Frankfurt Airport, one of the world‘s most important air transportation hubs. As part of a public tender, the company awarded a contract to Primion at the end of 2008 to supply a new integrated network system consisting of credential management, access control, time recording and gate access. Currently, new airport ID badges for some 80,000 people are being created and exchanged for the existing ones. To this can be added around a further 700,000 visitor badges per year.

Talk to Each Other
The first phase of the project was to create a comprehensive concept for the development and migration of the existing, highly complex credential management system in partnership with the committed and motivated members of the Fraport project team. Particular attention had to be given to the multiplicity of interfaces that the credential management system has to serve.

This also included interfaces to the existing access control system, which has to continue to be supplied with credential data until its replacement by the prime Websystems software from Primion.

From the start, the new system administers some 154,000 permanent credentials, 268,000 persons as well as 16,500 external company and organization units, together with their historical data. Within just the first two days, 3,500 visitor badges were created and issued.

The primary goal for Fraport was to bring the IT systems up to the latest standards in terms of security. As well as requiring a renewal of the central management systems, this also called for the replacement of all the door and gate access control readers as well as the time recording terminals, across the complete airport site. Once all the card readers have been upgraded to units with the new, high-security RFID technology, the previously used hybrid-cards with magnetic stripes will be replaced by the more economical, purely RFID cards.

Time for a Change
The successful introduction of the central credential management software provides the basis for the next phase of this major project: the introduction of time recording, access control and the gate access system. A further milestone should be reached in the near future when new time recording terminals employing the same proximity reading technology will be installed and the system taken into service. Shortly after that, the new access control system should also be rolled out. Swapping out the technology in around 900 switching cabinets and over 700 different rooms will be a complex task for all involved.

The final stage of the current project will be to replace the previous Multi-Access Control System (MACS), which currently controls processes at the gates, by a new Gate Access System (GAS) during a further roll-out phase. This represents a major challenge, both in terms of taking over the complex body of rules and regulations that handles gate control and in the replacement of all the terminal devices at the gates. Over 600 Gate Management Terminals (GMT) have to be replaced in the most security-critical areas while the system continues to operate. These measures mean a further optimization of the professional security technology deployed at Frankfurt Airport.