Passenger-facing information & entertainment networks

A concept has been developed for the onboard Internet system, information system, and audio-video devices of the EMU and access provision to them Provision of information and entertainment services aboard the high-speed EMU

Information systems have been developed that supply passengers and the train crew with information to create the necessary service conditions and passenger convenience. This solution is built on software-and-hardware means united in a single information network.

Creation of an innovative onboard entertainment and service system

Passenger-centric design means the system includes equipment providing a high-density Wi-Fi network that gives passengers reliable access to content and does not provide stationary content display means (displays, panel computers) installed in EMU cars except in designated areas (dedicated compartments, children's zone) or functionally dedicated devices — route boards.

The system is built in accordance with service-oriented architecture and a set of information and communication technologies. A feature of service-oriented architecture is the use of independent services performing defined functions, invoked in a standard way through defined interfaces. Services do not need information about calling applications to perform their functions, and applications do not need information about how services perform the declared function.

The innovative entertainment and service system operates on an EMU comprising cars of various configurations (leading; intermediate, including cars for passengers with reduced mobility, bistro car), with services provided according to service class.

System users are divided into categories:

• passengers;
• train crew;
• service and maintenance personnel.

1. Core technologies providing content delivery in the system:

Ethernet – provides data transfer between cars and devices within a car (content storage, routers, network controllers, access points, stationary display means);

Wi-Fi – provides data transfer to passenger devices and mobile devices of the train crew while inside the EMU.

2. Use of Ethernet technology to build the system allows various combinations of equipment placement on the EMU and different content routing schemes:

• unicast;
• multicast;

Use of different routing schemes optimises the volume of data (content) transferred.

3. Use of Wi-Fi technology enables organisation of a high-density Wi-Fi network with seamless Wi-Fi roaming when moving through the EMU.

4. The central element combining all information and entertainment services is the media portal. The media portal user interface is built according to general principles of Internet site construction (using hypertext technologies — a system of pages with cross-links arranged both vertically and horizontally). Access to the media portal is provided from passenger devices:

• running OS families: Android, Windows, Linux, iOS, macOS, Aurora (Sailfish Mobile OS RUS);
• using browsers supplied by default for the OS family, and additional browsers installed by the passenger.

5. Various services and functions are implemented as a set of docker containers.

6. Request handling and content broadcast scenarios are implemented as a set of scripts in JSON and XML format.

7. Software is developed using:

• programming languages: C, C++, Python, Java, and HTML;
• source code management tools: SVN, Git;
• requirements management tools: T-FLEX RM.