A consortium including Nokia and Engie Solutions has been contracted to deploy an industrial-grade LTE (long-term evolution) private wireless network for new automated lines of the Grand Paris Express metro.
Deployment of a private wireless network is part of an approach by the Société du Grand Paris as it replaces conventional technologies traditionally used in metro transport with LTE – a reliable, secure, broadband technology. Société du Grand Paris is a public agency established by the French government to deliver the vision of Grand Paris Express.
High-speed wireless connectivity
The project will provide critical, high-speed wireless connectivity services to meet future operational and maintenance requirements, as well as its transportation network emergency and security needs.
The project will cover over 200km of new lines, 68 new metro stations and all of the metro trains running on Paris metro lines 15, 16 and 17.
Nokia will deploy an LTE private mobile radio solution designed for operational communications and indoor/outdoor connectivity across all Grand Paris Express stations, lines and depots. These include voice, data (file transfer and multimedia support) and video services (transmission, on-board video surveillance).
Engie Solutions will provide its expertise in design and construction of rail transport infrastructure (tram, metro, conventional or high-speed rail lines). It will be responsible for steering the project value chain: study; purchasing; construction; and testing until global commissioning of the transport service.
Big data
“This project is not just a transport project, it is also a big digital transformation project,” said Jean-Luc Figuereo, director of the transport infrastructure market Engie Solutions.
“We are thus helping to create the cities, neighbourhoods and infrastructure of tomorrow that are more resilient and connected to their ecosystems.”
Engie Solutions will rely on a team specialising in strategic support for the management of complex railway projects and the integration of systems.
“Creation of the new Grand Paris metro is an ambitious project and we are delighted to collaborate with Engie Solutions as part of this project,” added Matthieu Bourguignon, vice-president Europe, Nokia Enterprise.
“Our selection by the Société du Grand Paris confirms Nokia’s place as a telecom leader in the transport marketplace and in particular on critical network solutions such as GSM-R, 4.9G/LTE, 5G, IP/MPLS, cybersecurity and IoT analytics.”
Grand Paris Express automated transit network is the new metro of the capital region. It consists of a ring route around Paris (line 15) and lines connecting developing neighbourhoods.
Additionally, Grand Paris Express also involves the extension of existing metro lines. Its four new lines circle the capital and provide connections with Paris’ three airports, business districts and research clusters. It will service 165,000 companies and 2 daily million commuters.
