Paris Local Transport Authority

Challenge
The Parisian buses have traditionally run multiple applications simultaneously, including those developed to control security, maintenance, and customer information. These different applications require a wireless connection with a central infrastructure, and as a result each application had its own communications module leading to decreased performance and increased cost.
In order to increase performance and customer service, while allowing employees and passengers continuous access to the latest information pertaining to their journey, RATP needed to equip each bus with onboard wireless services that would allow for constant access to centralized ínformation.

Solution

The RATP “intelligent” bus is equipped with a Cisco Mobile Access Router, enabling continuous access to all centralized information through different types of wireless links. This enables bus employees and commuters to access precise information through their mobile devices (laptops, PDAs…) depending on the time of day and the location of the bus, using the Appear Context Engine.
The mobile access enables continuous access to all centralized information through two kinds of wireless links: using Wi-Fi as the bus approaches a hotspot and EDGE throughout the rest of the trip. Much more than simple wireless Internet access, information relating to the local area, the district or the town, the transport network traffic and transport tickets as well as tube and bus timetables can be downloaded onto any mobile device.


For example, if the bus approaches the Paris International Gare du Nord station, commuters equipped with Wi-Fi hardware ccould immediately check departure times for the next subway leaving the station and obtain a list of shops and restaurants in the area. Meanwhile, the bus driver could send geo-localized alerts to the control centre if a car is parked in the bus lane.

Results
Each bus is now able to connect to multiple applications (for ex. route planning, timetables, real time traffic updates and disruption information) depending on the context information it receives. As a result, RATP is reducing the cost of ownership of the mobile solution by sharing the mobile infrastructure (including hardware and middleware) to support various internal and public applications.
The combination of a Cisco Mobile Access Router and Appear IQ enables employees and commuters on board Parisian buses to experience uninterrupted mobile access to local services. Additional information relating to traffic and security can be added in real time to the server, enabling workers to react faster to any disruption on the transport network.
RATP has already deployed the solution on all the buses of line 38, one of the major bus lines in Paris.

Key Technical Benefits

• Distributed architecture with intelligent embedded proxies
• Device independent – can run on heterogenous fleets of terminals (PDAs, laptops, onboard screens, etc.)
• Network agnostic – can run on any IP network
• Application push or synchronization
• Supports multiple context parameters, including location of the bus, time of day, user profile, etc.
• Supports voice, video and data applications
• Multi-service common use infrastructure
• Flexible and scalable platform