[Ruijie By Your Side] Beijing Bus Wi-Fi Steps into the 4.0 Era, Over Ten Thousands of Buses Enjoy Free Internet Access Services

Guo Degang's comic dialogs are all about people and things most familiar in daily life, such as young people dreaming of making a fortune and bragging among common people. Wi-Fi squatters and Beijing Line 300 buses often appear in his comedy pieces. Nowadays, passengers on Line 300 buses can use Wi-Fi network free of charge.

Beijing Line 300 Buses Providing a Free Wi-Fi Network

Line 300 Buses Providing a Free Wi-Fi Network

on July 11, the bus wireless network operator 16Wi-Fi announced that the Beijing bus free Wi-Fi network had passed network security certification by the Ministry of Public Security. Old network devices on Line 300 buses were replaced with new devices, and a wireless Internet access service was officially provided. In September, the transformation was completed in 18,000 buses of the Bus Group and passengers could enjoy a free Wi-Fi network.

Beijing was the first city to provide a free Wi-Fi network for buses in China. Its previous Internet access experience was unsatisfactory. The most negative assessment from passengers is that the Internet access experience is extremely poor, and the Wi-Fi network on buses serves only as an ornament. In response, 16Wi-Fi, the largest operator for bus Wi-Fi and key metro Wi-Fi, assessed the user application environment, replaced the original hardware devices and systems, and provisioned the Wi-Fi service by the end of September. Beijing's bus Wi-Fi network entered a new Internet access era.

In the transformation, the wireless system in the buses was upgraded to a faster and more stable 4G system, increasing convenience and improving security. Users only need to start the 16Wi-Fi App. The system automatically completes authentication in all buses to provide carrier-grade security, and therefore users do not need to worry about cyber attacks. So, which vehicle-mounted product did 16Wi-Fi select?

Ruijie RG-MTFi Delivers Precious Experience

The hardware adopted for Beijing bus Wi-Fi network is the Ruijie vehicle-mounted Wi-Fi product RG-MTFi. The advanced technology employed by the product lays a foundation for satisfactory user experience.

The power interfaces of previous products use common patch cables, which are easily loose in moving or bumpy environments. As a result, the device would disconnect from the power supply and network. Repeated power connections and disconnections may cause device burnout. Ruijie RG-MTFi uses a shockproof design for the power connectors, device internal structure, and installation mode. The interfaces use welded avionic elements.

In addition, the memory used in previous products is a 4 GB SD card, which may come loose due to bumpy terrain. Little memory results in frequent read and write operations, which easily cause device failures, damage or network connection failures. Ruijie RG-MTFi is equipped with a 128 GB SSD and supports local and remote updates. It has higher read speed and stability, and can store popular audio and video files, and frequently downloaded hot Apps in the local space, thereby greatly saving 4G fees (According to 16Wi-Fi statistics, each user consumes about 100 MB traffic every day).

The previous products support only 400 MB CPU, 128 MB memory, and 2.4G band, which severely affects device performance. Ruijie RG-MTFi uses the dual-core 1.4 GHz ARM processor and 2 GB memory. To enable the wireless network to provide high-quality experience for passengers, Ruijie RG-MTFi also uses the 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi design and supports 2.4 GHz/5.8 GHz WLAN network construction. 16Wi-Fi allocates 3 Mbps bandwidth to each access device, ensuring that 50 users can go online simultaneously, which is much lower than the capacity (100 users) of the Ruijie RG-MTFi.

Passengers can also enjoy news, mobile searches, videos, real-time bus queries, social media by bus and bus line, and WeChat Shake, brightening up bus journeys. Behind these applications, Ruijie RG-MTFi automatically connects to the vehicle-mounted Ruijie Wi-Fi platform. This platform uses CMS to deliver media content. The RG-MACC collects statistics and displays passenger boarding and alighting rankings, crowd density on roads on which the buses pass through, and passengers at stations during a period of time, thereby helping business personnel target multimedia ads in a differentiated manner based on regions and lines.

Going Deep into Bus Service Scenarios for Product Development

Ruijie Focuses on User Experience to Create Strong Products

Compared with wireless network applications in daily office scenarios, bus Wi-Fi network is still a new thing that needs to be constantly improved.

In response to the O&M requirements of 16Wi-Fi, Ruijie R&D engineers have become the regular passengers of Line 300 buses. They carry 90 different models of mobile phones, perform tests in rush hour, optimize RG-MTFi at night, and partner with business personnel from 16Wi-Fi. They have shortened the time required for 30 users to connect to the network simultaneously from 20 seconds to 2 seconds and have achieved the smart transportation goal.

The latest statistics communique revealed by the Ministry of Transport show that in 2015, the average daily volume of passengers transported by civil aviation is 1.19 million person-times, 6.95 million person-times by trains, 38.36 million person-times by metro, 109 million person-times by taxi, and 214 million person-times by bus. Buses are the primary way of traveling. Big data collection and analysis on bus Wi-Fi connect people with people, buses, services, and data. This provides a powerful way to improve travel, optimize lines and stations, promote green travel, ease traffic congestion, and benefit society over the long term.