Cradlepoint announced it has extended its Cellular Intelligence to 5G within NetCloud, its management, orchestration and endpoint control platform for Wireless WANs.
Public transit organizations have the ability to gain deep insights into their 5G networks that will enable the high-performance and reliable connectivity needed to help enhance the passenger experience for buses, shuttles, ferries, as well as light rail, commuter and long-haul trains.
Cradlepoint notes mass transportation is turning to 5G to support the expansion of connected technologies, including traffic signal priority systems, advanced vehicle location systems, fareboxes, surveillance cameras, digital signage and rider Wi-Fi. Having reliable connectivity allows agencies to improve customer service and the passenger experience, while enhancing safety. Real-time data and video can be gathered from a range of sensors and cameras to power greater insights and operational efficiency.
Additionally, pervasive cellular connectivity helps buses stay on schedule and offers enhanced service with connected fare payment systems.
"With our recent introduction of the R1900 5G ruggedized router, mass transit organizations can take advantage of a 5G solution designed specifically for the needs of buses, shuttles, ferries and light rail systems.” said Donna Johnson, Senior Vice President of Product and Solution Marketing at Cradlepoint. “However, hardware is only a part of the overall solution. New Cellular Intelligence for 5G software features within NetCloud give mass transit organizations unique insights into the cellular environment so they can provide enhanced quality of experience across tens of thousands of vehicles.”
A complete Wireless WAN solution requires a combination of leading hardware combined with cellular-intelligent software capabilities. The new NetCloud Cellular Intelligence for 5G features include:
- Rich 5G cellular health data with alerting and reporting capabilities: Real-time and historical view of cellular health and uptime across the entire network as well as on each individual router or modem interfaces. Information across the entire vehicle fleet is viewed in intuitive at-a-glance dashboards that give administrators a complete picture of their cellular health, while identifying any areas that might require attention.
- 5G cellular data usage tracking and forecasting: Ability to track and forecast data usage across thousands of vehicles, multiple carriers and different billing cycles to prevent costly overages. A newly enhanced cellular data dashboard within NetCloud Manager provides tracking, forecasting, graphs, and alerts on data usage pooled across all vehicles associated to a particular account, or for a single vehicle. Powerful machine learning capabilities forecast what the data usage will be based on current usage patterns, and to prevent any overages alerts can be set up for when certain usage thresholds are met.
- Location tracking with integrated 5G coverage map: Enables transit organizations to track the location of buses, ferries and trains (including unavoidable dead zones such as tunnels) while also viewing the health of available 5G cellular coverage across their entire region. This allows transit organizations to try and avoid coverage gaps on major routes and/or request additional coverage from their carrier where required.
- 5G optimized speed tests: Provides an accurate view of real-time cellular performance including upload/download throughput, latency, and jitter for the purposes of installation and troubleshooting.
The NetCloud Service provides centralized management, intelligent and reliable multi-carrier connectivity, and extensibility for mission-critical AVL, fleet, and operational applications. NetCloud Manager provides a single portal that enables full lifecycle management of in-vehicle networks and enables the deployment of 5G connectivity with integrated public Wi-Fi across vehicle fleets quickly and easily.
"We already had an ongoing relationship with Cradlepoint and, thanks to the positive experience, we decided to use Cradlepoint routers to broaden the scope of our solution which was imperative during the time of COVID-19. We were able to swiftly activate passenger counting systems and disseminating information to operators and the public via apps and displays installed on the outside of buses and at stops —all of this helped to offer our customers trusted information during the time of a global crisis”, said Gianni Scarfone, General Director for Azienda Trasporti Bergamo. “Extending the fleet connection and network monitoring system has qualitative leap in innovation to our infrastructure for now and into the future.”
"Wherever Seattle-area metro buses travel throughout the Puget Sound region, reliable cellular connectivity supports the applications and devices needed to operate smoothly. Rider experience is optimized and maintained with features such as digitally posted arrival times, and digital fair payment, which all rely on seamless network connectivity provided by Cradlepoint routers that helps keep buses on schedule, said Russ Mattichak, a network engineer for King County Metro. "Cradlepoint NetCloud and the web portal was a big, big piece of why we went with Cradlepoint."
