Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially issued 5G commercial licenses to four operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and China Radio and Television. With the stability of 5G technical standards and the construction of 5G test network, 5G technology has the conditions for comprehensive network construction and commercial operation. As the only main body of construction and operation of WiFi system of China Railway EMU, China Railway Jixun Technology Co., Ltd. actively embraces 5G technology, closely follows the national policy and the commercial pace of 5G technology, and comprehensively promotes the application of 5G technology in the railway industry.

From the railway side, it is understood that the National Railway Jixun has set up a professional technical team to make strategic arrangements in three aspects: the technical reserve of high-speed rail WiFi system, the integration of high-speed rail WiFi system with 5G, and the customized development of on-board 5G equipment. In terms of technical reserves, the on-board equipment of the high-speed rail WiFi system has the technical conditions to seamlessly switch to the 5G network.

The National Railway Jixun and the operators have also conducted in-depth research on the integration scheme of WiFi system and 5G technology for high-speed rail, and have initially drawn up a technical scheme for the integration of WiFi system and 5G technology. Key technologies such as edge computing, network slicing and virtualization will be used to realize a high degree of business integration between 5G and WiFi system users, solve the problem of shielding 5G signals by high-speed rail, and effectively improve passenger travel experience.

It is reported that China Railway Jixun has worked closely with 5G equipment manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE to jointly develop vehicle-mounted 5G equipment that is highly integrated with high-speed WiFi equipment, and plans to complete the test by the end of 2019. Through the customized development of on-board 5G equipment, China Railway Jixun will accelerate the integration and development of high-speed rail WiFi system and 5G, promote the development of industrial Internet, innovate products and business models, and create greater commercial value.

5G technology has the characteristics of ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency and massive connectivity, which fully compensates for the diverse needs of users and has a broad application space in many vertical industries such as autonomous driving, intelligent manufacturing, and telemedicine. However, due to the high frequency band of 5G and the small coverage of a single base station, the construction cost of 5G network is about 2 to 3 times that of 4G. For large buildings, high-speed rail, mines and other relatively closed scenes, 5G base stations are difficult to seamlessly cover, WiFi will be the best supplement to 5G, and the integration of high-speed rail WiFi and 5G technology will also create greater social and economic benefits.