# Airport Legacy-to-Modern Transition
Most airports run on legacy monolith systems built in the 1990s and 2000s. The [[Airport Operational Database]] sits at the center, connected to everything via bespoke integrations. Replacing it is politically and technically painful.
## The Modern Architectural Pattern
An Information Broker layer that sits above the AODB and all other systems, synchronizing data across the fragmented landscape into a single operational picture. Rather than replacing each legacy system, you build a connective tissue layer that normalizes and distributes data in real time. Same pattern as [[Knowledge Graphs for Industrial Data]] in process manufacturing: don't replace the historians, contextualize them. See [[Airport Data Integration Layer]] for the data source taxonomy.
## The Transition Vectors
The modern shift runs along six vectors:
1. Siloed operations to collaborative decision making
2. Static pre-planned schedules to real-time adaptive replanning
3. Dashboard-centric "see what happened" to decision-centric "what should I do next"
4. Vendor-locked stacks to vendor-neutral optimization layers
5. First-come-first-served manual dispatching to constraint-aware automated scheduling
6. Monolithic AODB integration to middleware Information Broker architecture
Each vector is independent but reinforcing. Progress on one makes the others easier.
Related: [[Airport Operations MOC]], [[Airport Operational Database]], [[Airport Systems Fragmentation]], [[Airport Data Integration Layer]], [[Knowledge Graphs for Industrial Data]], [[Digital Twins]]
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Tags: #deeptech #systems