Ruckus Wireless has teamed up with Smartac Group China to deploy Wi-Fi networks at Chinese railway stations as part of the upgrade to the nation's rail communications networks.
The companies are collaborating to build Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi networks covering 300 passenger stations along the Beijing, Guangzhou and Lanzhou railroad systems.
So far, the companies have completed deployment of Smart Wi-Fi networks at one Beijing Railway Bureau station, 100 Guangzhou Railway Corporation stations and four Lanzhou Railway Bureau stations.
Deployments at 70 additional Guangzhou railway stations are planned next.
Ruckus revealed that at one existing Smart Wi-Fi deployment, at Guangzhou South Railway Station, there are around 1,300 concurrent users at peak times. The highest data usage measured at the site was 36Gbps per hour, or 2.2 Terabytes in 24 hours.
The rollout is connected to a Chinese project to upgrade the wireless networks used in the nation's passenger railway transport system.
As part of this project, the Beijing and Nanning Railway Bureaus recently contracted Alcatel-Lucent to upgrade their respective backhaul networks using fiber technology.
The ultimate aim of the upgrade project is to transform China's passenger stations into “smart stations” as part of the global trend towards creating “smart cities.”
Separately from its collaboration with Smartac, Ruckus Wireless has also built Smart Wi-Fi nations for eight stations run by the Shanghai Railway Bureau, and deployed its technology in China's two largest airports.