Box TGV uses technology and infrastructure developed by the OCEA consortium, led by Orange Business Services and including Eutelsat, Alstom and Capgemini. The technological achievements realised by the consortium have risen to the challenge of ensuring service at high speed in a high voltage electrical environment, and integrating the system’s maintenance into the overall maintenance schedules of a high-speed network with no impact on the rotation of trains.
As prime contractor for the overall program, Orange Business Services assured the integration of services and the communications infrastructure, and used the R&D teams of Orange to develop the mobile router for connectivity between the satellite and WiFi network. As the operator and integrator, Orange Business Services also provides access, operation and maintenance services of the on board WiFi network and the Internet access. Eutelsat is supplying the satellite component of the network. The satellite antennas installed on the roof of the trains were specifically developed to comply with available headroom, and can operate at speeds up to 360 kph in a high voltage electrical environment. The system operates via Eutelsat’s ATLANTIC BIRD™ 2 satellite, using an advanced spread-spectrum technique, which makes it possible to layer up data flows transmitted to and from the trains. The service is available on the entire TGV East network serving France, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and currently supplies a total throughput of 30 Mbps, which can be increased as required. Alstom brought its experience of railway standards and equipment integration. It is responsible for supply and installation of the Wi-Fi equipment and the servers which process and store the on board multimedia portals. Alstom also installed the LAN network, which is connected to the servers feeding the carriages of each train and the WiFI hotspots in each carriage.
The overall service architecture and network.