SHENZHEN, China, June 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology solutions provider, today announced that its Global System for Mobile Communications - Railway (GSM-R) wireless network 5.0 Abis over IP feature has been the first in the industry to successfully pass an independent compliance and reliability test. The test was witnessed by TUV Rheinland, a leading global provider of technical, safety and certification services.
"We are pleased to work with TUV Rheinland, and we believe that their endorsement attests to the quality and reliability of Huawei's products. The demand for the Abis over IP feature has been growing and the completion of these tests are a significant development for the rail industry. We can now offer our GSM-R Abis over IP feature to railway companies in Europe and around the world, who have long been waiting for the launch of this technology," said David Xu, General manager of Enterprise wireless product line, Huawei.
Huawei's breakthrough GSM-R Abis over IP feature simplifies operational demands by consolidating two transmission networks into one. Operators with existing IP infrastructures can build a parallel GSM-R network without additional costs and merge existing GSM-R networks into a single IP based transmission system.
For many years, the Abis over IP function has been widely recognized by GSM-R operators as the most significant operational expense (OPEX) saving feature for rail operational communication systems as many railways have nationwide GSM-R networks with dedicated time-division multiplexing (TDM) lines spanning across tens of thousands of kilometers. Consolidating the transmission networks will reduce or eliminate the costly operation of a separate TDM network, use fewer spare parts and reduce employee training costs.
"This is a technically challenging development for the rail industry, and we assume that Huawei will continue to innovate and offer products to support and enhance the services provided by companies in the transportation industry," said Lars Walther, General Manager of TUV Rheinland InterTraffic GmbH.
Traditionally, connectivity between trackside GSM-R base transceiver stations and the centralized GSM-R network elements such as base station controllers require the use of Abis protocols that need to be established through transmission TDM based networks. However, with rising demand for data communications, many TDM based systems have been supplemented with dedicated IP based transmission networks to maximize performance, increase flexibility and enable better access with lower OPEX.
