The challenge of monitoring and controlling movements between Controlled Zone and Restricted Zone

Airport Security - The challenge of monitoring and controlling movements between Controlled Zone and Restricted Zone By Jason Burger

The Department for Transport (DfT) requires that airports monitor and control all movement of vehicles and people from the Controlled Zone (CZ) to the Restricted Zone (RZ). The Restricted Zone mostly includes the entire airfield amongst other key locations. The airfield often has certain access points with no physical barriers to restrict movement hence the main concern is access to the RZ from specific locations - such as hanger areas.

This is where an application using Airfield Security Situation Awareness System (ASSAS) can be applied. Many airports rely on existing security resources to monitor  movements from the CZ to the RZ. Manned guards for patrolling - comes at a very high cost – and technologies such as buried wire and other types of sensors have been trialled to regulate and control the movement of people and vehicles that cross the zone boundaries.

Unfortunately, these types of systems can prove unreliable and generate a higher than expected number of false alarms. The Airfield Security Situation Awareness System is a low power, commercial-off-the-shelf millimetre wave radar that scans in 360° detecting and tracking people or vehicles moving from one sector to another i.e. non-secure to secure. It provides a visual output on a map or aerial photograph of the airfield, plotting the location, direction and speed of the transgressor. At the same time it controls CCTV cameras to follow the track and provide a separate CCTV image of the target.

The system can incorporate several radars working as a meshed security network, ensuring large area coverage. The sophisticated tracking logic enables cameras to be  moved ahead of targets, such as fast moving vehicles, to ensure they remain in view regardless of their behaviour. The ASSAS tracker can further be configured through an integrated software package to exclude targets which exceed specific sizes, an essential feature, as airports need to be able to exclude aircraft.

A further way to enhance the ASSAS solution is to incorporate perimeter security and provide an integrated IFF (Identify Friend and Foe) system. In future, an IFF solution could be configured to utilise small GPS tags attached to vehicles, and subject to smaller battery packs, even airport staff, in order to identify whether a target being tracked by radar is a friend or foe. For more information visit www.navtechradar.com

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