At the very heart of the ability to provide streamed and loaded media content is Nomad Digital’s innovative connectivity solution, which aggregates multiple train-to-shore 3G / LTE networks. It’s a highly-sophisticated, intelligent system, which adapts and flexes to the environment and particular network availability.
To ensure seamless connectivity for hosting media content, the traffic for the “route” seamlessly moves to another available WAN, if one fails. The Central Communications Unit (CCU) intelligently distributes the traffic from these multiple routes across all available WANs, thereby providing aggregated capacity to the total traffic demand of the passengers using the service. The Nomad architecture uses an off-train Home Agent to route all traffic coming from the CCU out to the internet ensuring passenger service is not disrupted. The solution is totally tailored to the passengers’ needs and partners proactively embraced the views of passenger requirements to ensure this solution was benefit led by the end user.
Nomad’s connectivity IP backbone utilises WiFi infrastructure installed at Temple Mills International and St Pancras International to update Go Media’s rich suite of on-train media content. The modular design of the CCU allows Nomad to integrate the additional hardware needed to host the Go Media entertainment portal, even though this requirement emerged more than a year after the initial detailed design phase. This is testament to the CCU’s ability to adopt multiple systems as part of its backbone, future proofing Eurostar’s needs. The operator is exploring potential to ‘plug-in’ other enhanced services for its passenger, such as live streaming of major events.
A WiFi solution material ‘kit’ was supplied by Nomad Digital to Eurostar for each train set. Hardware is preconfigured by Nomad and is installed by SNCF, whilst the train undergoes its major refit / refurbishment, currently undertaken at SNCF’s Technical Centre in Lille, France.
