Proof of Concept of Vehicle to Infrastructure Power Line Communication Link for Tramway CCTV

Abstract

In the Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) context, the issue of broadband connected trains presents a number of technical and economic problems. Such broadband links would be benefit for both passengers and security needs. Several technical solutions are available, in particular wireless ones like Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE), Long Term Evolution (LTE) or 5G, but we explore here the feasibility of achieving this connectivity, dedicated to trams security application, via Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) technology through tramway power supply cables. In this paper we investigate the possibility of connecting a tramway to its security command post in order to transmit real time video streams through BPL. The Proof of Concept (PoC) is presented through the characterization of the channel, the performances of the physical layer, the measurement of available Round Trip Times (RTTs) and bit rates. Then we demonstrate in real-world a streaming of Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) from two tramway embedded cameras to the security command post. The PoC was carried out on the tramway infrastructure of the city of Lyon. Through this PoC, we have demonstrated the possibility of equipping a complete commercial line with BPL guaranteeing a bit rate of 60 Mega-Bytes per Second (Mb/S) and presented a deployment projection of the BPL solution for dynamic context (moving tram), based on Power-Line Communication (PLC).