IcoShape

The Challenges of Maintaining Quality of Service

With more rail passengers connecting to onboard Wi-Fi services than ever before, the provision of high-quality Wi-Fi is vital to ensuring customer satisfaction and retention. Modern public transport vehicles are increasingly becoming comparable to mobile offices and living rooms, with passengers expecting to remain productive and entertained throughout their journeys.

Additionally, the use of data by other onboard systems now equals and sometimes exceeds passenger Wi-Fi usage. This is driven by demand as data analytics becomes established – For example, through the use of digital video surveillance systems for incidents and / or train asset monitoring, and remote condition monitoring (RCM) as a tool for digital maintenance.

As the demand and consumption of wireless data continues to increase, transport operators face an everexpanding challenge in managing overall data usage and supplying an onboard experience to match expectations.

When several passengers browse the internet simultaneously, the onboard connection can quickly get ‘clogged up’. The congested Wi-Fi connection may become slow or unavailable for a majority of users. This inefficient use of the network means increased traffic loads, causing unnecessary excess data usage, resulting in increased data costs, and poor passenger experiences.

It is difficult to realise the onboard network’s maximum potential without putting in measures to proactively optimise the data traffic usage over the network. Latency and jitter sensitive services such as video conferencing and voice calls may be impacted by the heavy traffic load generated using bandwidth-intensive entertainment applications such as on-demand content streaming, potentially leading to a poor end-user experience for passengers wanting to use their journey time productively.

In order to fully optimise the onboard Wi-Fi network, data traffic management methods are therefore invaluable in shaping the onboard traffic according to an operators’ needs.

IcoShape: Connectivity that Works

Smarter, Not Harder

Icomera’s user-friendly data traffic management solution, IcoShape, allows transport operators to better control their data costs, optimise the quality of service, and improve passenger satisfaction.

IcoShape detects and classifies traffic by protocol (RTP/HTTP/HTTPS/DNS/SSL/SSH/etc) and by service type (video streaming, VoIP, Social Media etc.) across the total system. This allows operators to then prioritise, throttle and / or block service types using pre-set priorities, as needed.

IcoShape offers transport operators a powerful tool to make the onboard connectivity go further, empowering the transport industry to respond to evolving data needs in a fast, cost-effective and resilient way.

By using intelligent network traffic management to reduce the impact of heavy bandwidth use, transport operators can effectively and transparently…

• Manage data costs through efficient bandwidth usage and reducing unnecessary traffic load

• Improve passenger satisfaction by offering a better onboard Wi-Fi experience to more users at the same time

• Optimise the Quality of Service (QoS) of the onboard network by prioritising traffic for low-latency services

• Reduce bandwidth congestion, jitter, and packet loss

• Ensure business-critical applications run efficiently with low latency

Powerful Monitoring & Seamless Deployment

IcoShape is accessed via ICONIC – Icomera’s suite of advanced cloud-based network monitoring and optimisation tools. Operators can configure Wi-Fi usage rules using the user-friendly web-based graphical interface, monitoring the impact of any configuration changes with real-time reporting on data usage.

What’s more, for ease of deployment, IcoShape has been designed to be fully-compatible with Icomera’s Wi-Fi platform, meaning it can be instantly deployed over-the-air to vehicles that already offer Icomera passenger Wi-Fi.

Examining IcoShape’s Many Benefits

Passenger-Focused Traffic Shaping

If passenger Wi-Fi solutions are to live up to their productivity promise, it‘s imperative that the service on offer works well; transport operators simply cannot afford to deliver poor quality, unreliable Internet connectivity to those travelling.

Using IcoShape’s easy-to-navigate graphical interface, Wi-Fi traffic usage is broken down by service type, delivering a simple way to view where any inefficiencies might be occurring. Based on the viewable data, transport operators can then take action(s) to ensure that data-intensive applications do not congest the network.

For example, they may wish to set limitations on data-heavy applications (e.g. streaming services) during peak hours, to help ensure the available bandwidth can be shared equally amongst all passengers. The decision could also be taken to set Operating System (OS) updates to low priority for passengers, or to block them entirely, so that these do not use up the available bandwidth unnecessarily or incur significant data costs.

Alternatively, the decision might be taken to use IcoShape to prioritise business-related services within peak commuting times, so that passengers can continue working seamlessly as they travel to / from the office.

For instance, video conferencing services such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom, and business-focused email applications such as Microsoft Outlook, could be granted higher priority over other services during weekday mornings and evenings.

Operators looking to provide the most optimal Wi-Fi service possible to their passengers could even choose to remove all data restrictions at certain days or times. Marketing free and unrestricted passenger Wi-Fi can then be used to encourage uptake on transport services, for tourist trips at weekends, for instance.

Operationally Focused Traffic Shaping

As more and more onboard operational services leveraging Internet connectivity become business-critical, it may well become prudent for transport operators to prioritise bandwidth for these. This can be done within IcoShape by prioritising traffic for operational services such as staff Wi-Fi or onboard digital video surveillance systems over passenger Wi-Fi, for example.

Of course, it’s also possible to use IcoShape to combine a variety of different methodologies when it comes to delivering the prime passenger experience, while still intelligently managing data costs. Furthermore, Icomera can offer best practice guidance based on proven settings designed to ensure that data costs are controlled, while still allowing those travelling to benefit from the best possible experience, simplifying the process.

With the right setup, transport operators are well placed to make sure that the available bandwidth is shared most sensibly and fairly between its passengers and / or any onboard systems which require Internet connectivity.

Case Study: Northern

Icomera demonstrated the powerful capabilities of IcoShape as part of a deployment for UK rail operator Northern. As a result of IcoShape’s roll-out, Northern has achieved an average 20% reduction in its data consumption, while improving the overall passenger experience for its Wi-Fi users.

Project Background

Northern’s passenger Wi-Fi service works by utilising the available cellular capacity in the geographical areas its trains pass through, in order to deliver data to those on board. With over 340 trains travelling on its network, and an average of more than half a million users connecting to its Wi-Fi every month, data usage (and, in turn, costs) could quickly begin to add up. What’s more, this data expenditure was largely outside the transport operator’s control, given that the provision of Wi-Fi to rail passengers is mandated in the UK.

Pre-pandemic, as a result of its data usage, the transport operator was expecting to quadruple its data spend. Of course, when Covid hit and lockdowns were enforced, Northern saw a sharp wind-down in data use – But, as lockdowns eased in the summer of 2021, and passengers began to return to public transport, data consumption started to rise steadily again.

Northern also noticed a shift in how its passengers were using the onboard Wi-Fi service; more and more passengers were travelling for leisure, while the shift to hybrid office / home working meant that business travellers were seeking to use the onboard Wi-Fi network in different ways (e.g. for video conferencing).

Delivering a high-quality Wi-Fi service was therefore more vital than ever for overall passenger satisfaction levels in the “new normal”; however, due to the finite bandwidth available from cellular networks, the onboard Wi-Fi connection could quickly become “clogged up” when large numbers of Northern’s passengers were seeking to use the service simultaneously. This could result in a less than optimal Wi-Fi experience for its travellers, if left unchecked.

Given the substantial amount of data that it handles and the rising associated costs, Northern sought a solution which would allow it to (a) control and mitigate its data spend, while (b) still being able to offer the best possible experience for its passengers connecting to the onboard Wi-Fi.

A Successful Trial

To help address these two aims, Icomera deployed its IcoShape solution as part of a competitive trial which Northern ran in 2022.

By categorising network traffic, IcoShape allowed Northern to gain a deeper understanding of how data was being used, and to take the appropriate action. It was possible to monitor and analyse whether data spend was coming from passenger services or from operational systems, for instance. Data traffic streams could then be prioritised, throttled, or blocked depending on their level of importance, to better manage data usage and costs.

Importantly, IcoShape’s deployment resulted in no detrimental impact to passenger satisfaction levels; in fact, Northern saw an improvement in the overall passenger experience because it could provide a fairer, more reliable Wi-Fi service for all (as opposed to a small number of passengers “hogging” the available bandwidth).

Northern experienced a 10x return-on-investment using IcoShape, as well as achieving an average 20% reduction in its data consumption.

20% Average reduction in data consumption

>10x Return

IcoShape is now deployed on all Northern trains equipped with Icomera connectivity

Fleet-wide Deployment

As a result of the trial’s success, Northern selected Icomera to roll-out IcoShape fleet-wide; this was a simple task given that Icomera’s connectivity solution allows for over-the-air deployment, in the click of a button. Icomera continues to work closely with Northern to leverage IcoShape’s different use-cases, and to align the tool’s feature roadmap to the transport operator’s business goals.

In a further sign of the project’s accomplishments, Northern has championed IcoShape when participating in a UK-wide task group set-up to investigate solutions and best practices that can be implemented to create a more efficient railway network.

What Northern Say:

“IcoShape has allowed us not only to better maintain our cost portfolio, but also to increase the customer benefit through delivering a more reliable Wi-Fi service across our network.”

Marc Silverwood On Train System Manager, Northern

What We Say:

“We’re thrilled that, thanks to our close working relationship, Northern has been able to reap the rewards of being an early adopter of innovative Icomera solutions, such as IcoShape.”

Peter Kingsland SVP UK, Australia & Asia, Icomera

Get in Touch Today…

At Icomera, we work in partnership with clients to build long-term relationships. We listen to your needs and advise you on the solutions that fit your requirements, with room to grow in the future. We are with you through the installation process and over the entirety of a solution’s service life. We can point to our proven track record of successful projects, providing relevant case studies on request.

To find out more about how we can help you, contact sales@icomera.com today

About Icomera

Icomera is the world’s leading provider of integrated connectivity solutions for trains, trams, buses and coaches, serving millions of passengers and tens of thousands of onboard systems on a daily basis.

We deliver the fastest, most reliable and secure Internet connection available to a moving vehicle, supporting a wide range of digital applications which increase passenger satisfaction, enhance operational efficiency, and improve safety and security.

Our solutions make transport more attractive for passengers and part of a smarter, safer, greener future for everyone, accelerating the transition towards a carbon-neutral world.