Train passengers know that there is no Wi-Fi network available on the train, but their favorite pastime on journeys is to access the Internet for entertainment on their phones. Traffic usage is heartbreaking, and traffic fees are extremely costly in a business trip or travel. Now, passengers have a solution. Zhengzhou Railway Administration announced that mobile Wi-Fi devices will be installed in 1,700 trains on 87 lines to provide free Internet and add more fun to the journey.

Three Major Concerns of Free Wi-Fi Networks for Zhengzhou Railways

As one of the world's largest transport modes, trains carry the most passengers on long journeys. If Wi-Fi devices are installed on trains to provide free Wi-Fi networks, passengers' travel experience will be greatly enhanced. However, it was not easy to implement the initiative for Zhengzhou Railway Administration, which is known as the heart of Chinese rail system.

In the last two years, the railway sector always lists free Wi-Fi networks on trains as an important measure for enhancing the passenger experience. In July 2016, Zhengzhou Railway Administration announced that mobile Wi-Fi devices would be installed on nearly a hundred lines of trains, which means that free Wi-Fi networks would fully cover all air-conditioned general-speed trains. However, the deployment of wireless Wi-Fi services in the train system is greatly challenging. The person in charge of building and operation brought up some concerns, which mainly involve three aspects:

• Safety: Train Wi-Fi network is a new service. How can safety be ensured by guaranteeing that the wireless Wi-Fi system does not affect the signal system?
• Reliability: One compartment of a general-speed train carries about 110 passengers. If 110 passengers connect to the Wi-Fi network at the same time, how can the availability of the wireless network be ensured? How can the wireless Wi-Fi network remain unaffected when the 3G/4G signal quality is poor?
• Ease of use: If Wi-Fi devices are deployed on thousands of trains, how can devices be managed after product deployment and enhance OAM efficiency?

In this project, the Wi-Fi networks of trains are implemented by converting the 3G/4G signals sent from network operators along the railways into Wi-Fi signals. Then the signals are sent to the devices inside compartments. Each compartment is equipped with one master device and one signal transmitter to ensure good signal quality. So, to achieve the desired effect and meet the three requirements above, a verified complete solution and high-quality hardware devices are the keys to project success.

Ruijie RG-MTFi Ensures the Best Internet Access Experience for the Journey

After multiple considerations, selection, and verification, Zhengzhou Railway Administration finally chose Guangzhou Meizheng Online Network Technologies (Meizheng) as a partner operator. Meizheng joined hands with Ruijie Networks to provide overall Wi-Fi coverage and solution for trains. 

After considering the detailed requirements of Zhengzhou Railway Administration for safety, signal coverage, Internet access experience, and safe management of trains deployed with Wi-Fi networks, Ruijie adopts RG-MTFi, a dedicated vehicle-mounted product for supporting rail transit applications.

Its safety, reliability, and high performance features meet train Wi-Fi requirements.

RG-MTFi: Ruijie Vehicle-mounted Wi-Fi Product

Ruijie RG-MTFi uses a shockproof design for the power connectors, internal structure, and installation mode. The power interfaces use welded avionic elements, ensuring proper shockproof performance. RG-MTFi is equipped with a 500 GB SSD and supports local and remote updates. It has a high read speed and stability, can store popular audio and video files, as well as frequently downloaded hot Apps in the local space, thereby greatly saving 4G fees.  RG-MTFi also uses the 802.11ac-compliant MIMO Wi-Fi design in hardware, and supports 2.4 GHz/5.8 GHz WLAN networks. Each access device ensures that 80-120 users can go online simultaneously, and one device can meet the access requirements of all users in one compartment, eliminating customer's concern about the effect after all users in a compartment connect to the Wi-Fi network.

Ruijie RG-MACC

In operation management, with the Ruijie RG-MACC, OAM personnel can easily perform product asset management, user management, traffic management, service measurement, and big data analysis, eliminating their concerns.

Railway Operation Enters "E-era"

In September 2016, Zhengzhou Railway Administration successfully completed the Wi-Fi network deployment on more than 1,700 trains on 87 lines. The Wi-Fi networks deployed on the trains include the LAN and Internet, and passengers are free to use them.  There are hundreds of HD movies provided on the LAN. Passengers who need to access the Internet can use the Internet after completing a simple registration process on their mobile phones.

In trains with full Wi-Fi coverage, Zhengzhou Railway Administration provides passengers with shopping, group purchases, real-time news, and App downloads, as well as train times, ticketing services, railway publicity, and railway news through its operating platform. Passengers can enjoy the Internet entertainment and other value-added services, and passengers and customers can achieve mutual benefits through the streamlined offline-online service operation mode, making the trains in the industrial age step into the information-based E-era.