Guaranteeing Gigabit connectivity for the railways (Guest blog by evo-rail)
Gigabit connectivity on trains is a necessity to meet customer demand and Train Operator’s to deliver an adequate experience. That is why evo-rail, a rail telecoms company formed out of FirstGroup, has designed rail-5G – a superfast gigabit rail broadband solution that can guarantee to deliver what is required in greater than a gigabit, 100% coverage, quickly, safely and efficiently.
Recent polling by Ipsos found that 32% of regular rail users are not confident that they would have access to reliable on-board Wi-Fi coverage, while 82% of respondents stated that they would use improved Wi-Fi for a range of online activities.
Crucially, the research found that 64% of young people (aged 16-35), and 41% of all adults, would be more likely to consider taking the train over another mode of transport if there was fast, reliable on-board Wi-Fi.
The pent-up demand for data is only expected to continue: Ofcom1 forecasts data growth to be between 25% and 55% year on year up until 2030. On rail-based demand specifically, Ofcom has predicted2 that by 2025 a mainline train would require 1Gb/s with mainline commuter trains needing 2-3 Gb/s.
Putting this in context, the median speed of all four mobile operators aggregated delivers just 136Mbps3 (at its very best) which is just 15% of demand. Moreover, in rail, there is a shift toward more uplink data as recognised by UK5G4. ) This presents little challenge for rail-5G due to the symmetrical use of spectrum, unlike traditional mobile operators who require total service capacity to be split with a 3:1 ratio (downlink:uplink) due to their use of TDD (Time Division Duplex).
Rail-5G architecture is designed to deliver 1Gb/s for the entire length of the track. It provides a secure track side network with multiple small radio units which simultaneously connect to radio units at the front and back of the train. This enables a highspeed internet connection of over 1Gb/s to onboard systems and faster on-board Wi-Fi and other data services (including on-board mobile networks).
Figure 2 Overview of rail-5G network architecture
Furthermore, rail-5G’s trackside radios draw significantly less power compared to mobile operator solutions where a tower site could be consuming as much as 1kW5 . This has enabled evo-rail to develop a trackside solution that is completely powered by solar power, delivering a carbon neutral/net-zero solution.
The lightweight nature of the rail-5G radio solution allows the use of existing trackside stanchions. The evo-rail stanchion mounted pole (eSMP) is deployable in just a couple of hours for safer and faster deployment of a radio network along the track. The eSMP can also be safely lowered parallel to the track enabling safer and quicker maintenance.
As we look to attract passengers back to the railway, making better use of technology on trains and increasing efficiency and safety of the railway, it is clear the rail industry needs access to secure, low latency wireless Gigabit connectivity. Meeting these growing operational necessities, as well as delivering a Wi-Fi service to passengers which is comparable to their home or office connectivity, needs a new approach. Rail-5G provides a safe, efficient solution that meets today and future demand. Rail-5G delivers the railway of the future.
Get involved with our work
All of techUK’s work is led by our members – keep in touch or get involved with our work on transport and infrastructure by joining our groups.
