The deployment is for WESTbahn’s new, expanded fleet of intercity trains on the Vienna to Salzburg line.
Austrian rail operator WESTbahn has chosen Nokia to implement secure, high capacity train-to-ground communications across the operator’s new and expanded fleet of intercity trains.
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The train operator has commissioned 15 Stadler KISS trains for the Vienna to Salzburg line, which are double-decker (pictured).
Nokia will supply, deploy and maintain Wi-Fi access points, intelligent multi-path switching and control systems at WESTbahn’s Operations Control Centre (OCC).
Passengers and ops
The Nokia solution is intended to provide on-board operations and passengers with secure, reliable broadband across the new fleet.
Nokia has deployed its train-to-ground solution in several urban and metro rail networks, and has expertise in GSM-R, a secure platform for voice and data communication between railway operational staff, and its successor, the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS).
This is being developed by the international association for rail providers, UIC, built on 3GPP building blocks, with the gaps will be covered by ETSI specifications to ensure global interoperability and consistency.
It is designed to provides extreme resilience, assured throughput, end-to-end security and outstanding quality of service. It is backhaul agnostic and works with Wi-Fi, LTE or a hybrid access infrastructure.
Best connection
Nokia maintains the best possible on-board connectivity through intelligent switching – a multi-path connectivity algorithm that routes traffic optimally via redundant network gateways.
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These gateways simultaneously connect to multiple local mobile operator networks and maintain high quality on-board connectivity by selecting and aggregating available bandwidth across the best performing channels.
End-to-end mechanisms ensure secure operations data exchange between the trains and WESTbahn’s OCC
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Christian Watzinger, Head of Enterprise Sales Austria, Nokia Cloud and Network Services, said: “With this latest agreement, our relationship with WESTbahn will extend to more than a decade. During this time, by providing high-speed Wi-Fi throughout its fleet, WESTbahn has successfully differentiated in the marketplace with a commitment to outstanding levels of operational performance and customer service.”