BelAir20M Mobile Bridge
This high performance ultra compact, in-vehicle Wi-Fi 802.11n mobile bridge is mounted inside mass transit vehicles to deliver Wi-Fi access to both commuters and transit personnel.
The BelAir20M cost-effectively addresses the mobility, coverage and backhaul challenges associated with providing mobile broadband service on high-speed mass transit vehicles. Linking to high capacity trackside wireless infrastructure comprised of BelAir Networks industry-leading outdoor mesh nodes, the BelAir20M provides continuous, uninterrupted 802.11n Wi-Fi services supporting: public Wi-Fi access for commuters, telematics systems monitoring train operations, point of sale applications for ticketing, and video security cameras and monitoring.
The BelAir20M had undergone extensive vibration, shock and bump testing and meets all demanding regulatory requirements for railway installations.
Mass transit agencies may choose to own and run their wireless networks or opt for a managed service model through leading telecom, cable or other service providers. By leveraging the same BelAirOS operating system and BelView Network Management used in throughout the company's portfolio, the BelAir20M is designed to make either business model attractive. The BelAir20M is easy to deploy and operate and can be remotely or centrally managed. It can also integrate with a service provider's back office infrastructure to facilitate service provisioning and bundling, ease deployment and operation, and reduce network commissining and upgrade costs.
The BelAir20M is mounted on the ceiling or interior wall of the train car providing Wi-Fi access for 802.11 n/b/g enabled devices including smartphones and notebooks. Video security cameras can be connected to the BelAir20M via an integrated Ethernet port. Video, voice and data traffic from devices and cameras is backhauled from the second radio of the BelAir20M to the trackside infrastructure. Trackside infrastructure can operate at a variety of licensed and license-free frequencies including 5 GHz (802.11a), WiMAX, 5.9 GHz ITS, 4.9 GHz Public Safety and 4.4 GHz (designated for military use).
Comprised of BelAir200 and BelAir100 nodes, this trackside infrastructure requires very few wireline egress points due to BelAir Networks patented switched architecture. This architecture supports much higher bandwidth and more ubiquitous coverage than traditional satellite or cellular options. Seamless connectivity is maintained between the in-train BelAir20M units and the trackside nodes using BelAir's unique "make before break" handover methodology, traditionally associated with cellular networking. This technique reduces handover interruptions to less than 20 ms, resulting in a seamless broadband connection.
In large scale mass transit networks, where wired egress from the wireless networks may include multiple IP domains, industry standard tunneling is used which effectively allows the entire coverage area to be viewed as one seamless domain. This ensures that connections do not get dropped and have to be re-establishde and it also enables carrier-class, scalable, centralized AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) services.