A multilevel approach for airport security ressource allocation

In this communication, the problem of optimizing the allocation of equipments and work teams to control flows of passengers in an airport terminal is considered. The main objective is to minimize the possibility of dangerous situations inside the passenger terminal including dubious passenger being admitted on board aircraft, but another objective is to insure a minimum quality of service to passengers. This communication introduces a general mesoscopic modelling approach for passengers flows in an airport terminal which should be compatible with the formulation of relevant short term optimization problems for the allocation of available security equipment and staff. The adopted network approach displays the dynamic interdependencies between the different flows and queuing systems while the degree of detail adopted allows the definition and quantification of detailed performance indexes. Different instances of global optimization can be proposed but when considering that upstream (check-in) and downstream (boarding) processes follow specified operations rules, the resulting optimization problem concentrates on the optimization of security operations. An overall optimization problem is formulated but its complexity leads to decompose it in two optimizations problems: one devoted to the optimal assignment of airlines ressources to check-in and boarding and one dedicated to the optimal assignment of passengers control ressources. The coordination of the solutions of the two problems is insured by two ways: by taking into account the predicted effect of decisions on current sub-system to the others and by improving these predictions through repeared overall simulations.