Last year, Huawei and the Southern African Railways Association (SARA) entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a framework of cooperation for the improvement of railway transport and corridor logistics in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
The framework aims to enable seamless, efficient, smooth, cost-effective, and high-quality railway corridor services across all SARA corridors.
At Mobile World Congress, Capacity sat with Guoyu Wang, vice president of Huawei Smart Transportation BU, to get a deeper understanding of the partnership between Huawei and the country of South Africa.
Wang is primarily responsible for marketing, solution planning and design, integration verification and ecological cooperation.
“We have had a dedicated transportation team in China since 1996, and Huawei thereafter is becoming the main vendor in South Africa’s railway industry,” Wang says.
Since then, Huawei has been an active supplier of ICT solutions to railway and metro customers, with the company’s digital railway solution deployed on more than 150,000km of railway lines around the world.
Huawei says its solutions address the requirements of railway communications, improving the reliability and efficiency of railway operations.
But in the past 10 years, the railway industry of Africa in particular, has not implemented the latest digital technologies, often lagging behind when it comes to digital transformation.
This, according to Wang, is because digital technologies move so quickly from one generation to the next that the railway industry is struggling to keep up/pace.
For the Southern Africa region, there is an urgent need to implement standardised technical guidelines based on the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) – an international wireless communications standard for railway communication and applications.
FRMCS is crucial to the digital transformation of the railway industry. According to the International Union of Railways (UIC), the roll-out of new systems in EU countries is set to take place over a fairly lengthy period of at least 10 years between 2025 and 2035.
The new system will work in parallel with the existing Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway (GSM-R) system to achieve a smooth transition to 5G in the next few years.
The GSM-R system is built on GSM technology and is typically implemented using base station masts close to the railway.
“Many countries deployed this technology in their railway networks over 20 years ago,” Wang says.
“Each railway operator will now have to choose which technology routes they will choose for their networks.”
FRMCS meanwhile, based on a single technology allows Huawei to build a unified railway network based on the same technology to achieve a truly integrated regional railway system.
A vital opportunity
And rail still presents a vital opportunity for South Africa and its economy as a whole.
That is because, compared to other modes of transport, rail is particularly useful for public transport systems in intercity and urban environments. However, Freight traffic in Africa accounts for only 7% of the global total, and for passenger traffic, this share falls to 2%.
Currently, Africa’s rail network is underdeveloped. The mileage is less than 90,000 kilometres, accounting for only 5% of the world’s railway mileage.
Through its latest agreement though, Huawei is helping railways build smart systems for secure and efficient rail transport that enables the growth and development of trade across the region.
Although, there are several challenges facing the railway industry in South Africa. Firstly, Wang says, with regard to digital technology, the railway industry has often been “conservative”.
Secondly, Wang says it's key to focus on operational efficiency while keeping passengers’ overall experience in mind. He puts this down to three factors – safety, efficiency and experience, all of which, he says, are key to improving South Africa’s railway industry.
Additionally, navigating the complex terrain in Africa could present further problems for Huawei as it implements more up-to-date railway transport.
According to Wang, Huawei's technology has been fully verified in numerous challenging environments in China, and can fully adapt to the working environments and landscapes of our customers in Africa.
During MWC, Huawei displayed its flagship products and solutions for the railway industry, including Perimeter Detection, FRMCS and FRMCS Bearer Network. With various application scenarios and diversified data structures in the railway industry, there is a wide range of smart requirements that need to be met, according to the Chinese vendor.
Moving forward, Huawei has plans to enhance railway transport capacity, rolling stock inspections, as well as bridge, tunnel, and track operations along railways. The company aims to optimise passenger experience, increase operational efficiency, and focus on improving transportation safety while pursuing digitalisation and informatisation in a single service domain.
