Industry and academia collaborates for a more mobile world

Buses and trains in a sense resemble tin cans, which severly attenuate radio signals, preventing mobile internet connection if you are inside. However, by using  an aerial on the vehicle’s roof communicating with a router on the inside, passengers can have access to wireless mobile internet connectivity.
Icomera is one of six industrial partners in the research profile HITS, High Quality Networked Services in a Mobile World, led by Computer Science at Karlstad University.
”We are very pleased with our cooperation with Computer Science. Our team at Icomera is quite small and therefore it’s important that we put resources on the right things,” says Mats Karlsson, innovation- and research director at Icomera. ”This partnership means that we can get new ideas and perspectives providing new answers and more knowledge for better decision-making.”
In the system used for wireless Internet in public transportation, data on network conditions and traffic are collected. The cooperation between Icomera and Karlstad University is set up to collect, visualise, and analyse the data, which can be used for error detection at an early stage. Thus, errors can be corrected before the users experience problems.
Limited capacity that must be used wisely
Providing internet connectivity on buses and trains often mean many users in a small space with limited access to capacity. A good connection for the users requires a smart and efficient use of the available capacity. If this is realised in combination with multiple radio networks, Icomera can provide users with a robust connection on buses and trains.
Latency is a factor that can be affected if the capacity is not utilised properly and if errors arise in the system. Then the user will experience delays.
”Latency and delays are areas of interest in our research”, says Johan Garcia, project leader and senior lecturer in computer science at Karlstad University. ”Through our partnership with Icomera, we get access to valuable data and input to our research which means that we can find new solutions for reducing latency and improving the internet.”
The HITS research profile
The HITS research profile was initiated in the autumn of 2014, with funding from the KK-foundation. In cooperation with six Swedish companies, Computer Science at Karlstad University works to produce new and better network services to meet the needs of an increasingly mobile world. The partnership also aim to further strengthen the competitiveness of Swedish industry.
”To us the cooperation has meant new approaches when it comes to analysing big data,” says Mats Karlsson. ”The problems that researchers encountered in their work made us choose a different approach than planned, which saved a lot of time and resources. The researchers have also found new methods and approaches leading to interesting results for the future. We have also had help in verifying ideas since we and project researchers have studied the same problem and independently of one another reached similar solutions.”