Outcomes, Insights and Best Practices from IIC Testbeds: LTE for Metro Testbed
To extend the usefulness of the published testbeds in the Testbed Program of the Industrial
Internet Consortium (IIC), the Testbed Working Group has developed an initiative to interview
the contributors of selected testbeds to showcase more insights about the testbed, including the
lessons learned through the testbed development process. This initiative enables the IIC to share
more insights and inspire more members to engage in the Testbed Program.
This article highlights the LTE for Metro Testbed. The information and insights described in the
following article were captured through an interview conducted by Mr. Howard Kradjel, Vice
President of Industry Programs at IIC, with Mr. Yaling Zhou, Industrial IoT Industry Development
Director at Huawei Technologies. Yaling is an active member in the IIC where he serves as a co-
lead of the LTE for Metro Testbed, co-chair of the Chinese Regional Team and co-chair of the
Standards Task Group.
LTE FOR M ETRO T ESTBED – F ROM C ONCEPT TO R EALITY
applicable to discussions around future
international standardization in the metro
rail industry and promote the collaboration
between
Standards
Developing
Organizations (SDOs) and various parties in
the metro field.
Within a metro system, a wireless
communication sub-system carries multiple
types of services for train control and
management between devices on moving
trains and ground facilities. Many wireless
technologies are used to support different
services. To guarantee service, two separate
Wi-Fi networks are set up to carry critical
and non-critical services. A typical critical
service is Communication Based Train
Control (CBTC) while a non-critical service
may include video surveillance and
Passenger Information Systems (PIS).
Implementing two separate wireless
networks
introduces
vendor-specific
extensions that lack standardization and
interoperability. The metro rail industry is in
need of a next-generation solution for
wireless communication in metro systems.
The testbed’s areas of experimentation
include services needing support (CBTC,
trunking, PIS), the performance and
reliability of critical services (CBTC delay,
jitter, packet loss) and the performance of
non-critical services. The output of the
testbed will address system specification for
various key challenges and best practices for
system architecture and key technology
selection. Furthermore, the testbed will
provide insight on the necessary
architecture, features, configurations and
profiles to meet service requirements under
various conditions.
The Long-Term Evolution (LTE) for Metro
Testbed establishes and validates a profile
for the use of LTE technology in metro
environments for the purposes of wireless
communication and quality of service
(critical and non-critical) for metro control
and operation. The results of this testbed are
IIC Journal of Innovation
The LTE for Metro Testbed addresses two
key use cases. The testbed first focuses on
validating the network capability in critical
services to support CBTC, adjusting the
profile
as
necessary
(architecture,
configuration, installation) to ensure service
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