The FRA project started in fall of 2003 when we established a wireless test bed for railroad applications outside of Crete, Nebraska.
This test bed covers a railroad stretch of 3.5 miles. It is currently covered by 8 access point locations, powered by equipment from Strix Systems.
It provides 802.11b/g client access to mobile wireless devices located on cars or locomotives. All APs are connected wirelessly among each other using an 802.11a backhaul.

The main goal of this project is to study the performance of wireless technologies such as 802.11a/b/g and upcoming technologies such as 802.16 (particularly 802.16e) and 802.20.

Simultaneously to the field test efforts we are also working on a detailed and realistic simulation environment for wireless networks. The goal of this project is to provide additional results expanding on our field test results as well as a future planning tool for railroad wireless network deployments.

 

Group Photo at AP2-Site