The Industrial Internet Consortium Announces New LTE For Metro Testbed

Testbed, led by Huawei and partners, provides benchmark for future urban rail construction

[ Neeham, Ma，March 2, 2020 ] The Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC™), the world’s leading organization transforming business and society by accelerating the adoption of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), today announced the Long Term Evolution (LTE) for Metro Testbed led by Huawei and partners. The first testbed for the rail transportation industry, the LTE for Metro Testbed shows the feasibility of adapting LTE for Metro technologies for the urban rail sector.

“ICT construction continues to grow in the urban rail industry. The requirements for urban rail operational management are more stringent and diverse so train-to-ground wireless communication networks must be more reliable, secure and provide more sufficient bandwidth resources,” said Wang Guoyu, General Manager of Enterprise BG Transportation Solution Department, Huawei. “The LTE for Metro Testbed provides a benchmark for future urban rail construction.”

“The LTE for Metro Testbed will serve as a benchmark and technical resource for future urban rail communications,” said Dr. Richard Soley, Executive Director, IIC. “The testbed is part of the IIC Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) initiative, in which IIC members are working on best practices and technologies to help guide the transportation industry.”

Within metro systems, multiple types of wireless communication services are used for train control, and for management between devices on a moving train and facilities on the ground. The services include Communication Based Train Control (CBTC), Passenger Information System (PIS), CCTV monitoring, trunking communication and Train Control and Monitoring Systems (TCMS). Multiple wireless technologies support the different services. To guarantee critical service, two WiFi-based networks carry critical and noncritical services respectively, operating with vendor-specific extensions. They are not standardized or interoperable.

The IIC LTE for Metro Testbed plans to replace existing non-standard networks with a standard single-technology-based network. LTE for Metro technology features high bandwidth, great mobility and multi-service Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities, making it a prevailing trend for train-to-ground wireless communications. LTE for Metro technology has been tailored to metro railway requirements and meets the needs of the urban rail industry for service functions, performance and reliability.

To promote the testing, verification and global adoption of LTE for Metro technology, as well as the formulation of international LTE for Metro standards, Huawei has been actively participating in LTE for Metro standards development led by the China Association of Metros (CAMET).

Huawei teamed up with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) and Beijing Jiaotong University to apply for IIC approval of the LTE for Metro Testbed. The initiative was supported by Huawei’s customers and partners such as Ningbo Metro and Beijing Traffic Control Technology Co., Ltd, Mission Information Technologies and Nanjing Panda Electronics Company Limited.

The LTE for Metro testbed will conduct tests in lab environments and in live metro environments to verify key technical points for adapting LTE for Metro technologies for the urban rail industry. The output of the testbed project will include measures for addressing key challenges and best practices concerning system architecture, key technology selection and optimization. Huawei’s Urban Rail Ecosystem Lab, located in Huawei’s Suzhou OpenLab, houses a wide variety of professional test facilities.

Huawei will fully use its expertise to support many phases of the testbed and collaborate with partners to complete involved tests. More vendors and rail operators are welcome to join the operation of the testbed, which will draw wider participation across the industry to make the tests more representative.

About Industrial Internet Consortium

The Industrial Internet Consortium is the world’s leading membership program transforming business and society by accelerating the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The IIC delivers a trustworthy IIoT in which the world’s systems and devices are securely connected and controlled to deliver transformational outcomes. The Industrial Internet Consortium is a program of the Object Management Group (OMG).

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