Light-trains: A Cross-Layer Delivery Mechanism for High Bandwidth Applications in Moving Metro-Trains

Trains as a mass transport system are a strong application case for coarsely granular bandwidth-on-demand networking. Multiple trains time-sharing the same track, traveling at a significant speed and containing a large number of bandwidth savvy users represents a premier motivation for the merger of optical and wireless communications. Wireless delivery methods alone cannot suffice the need for such a large moving mass of bandwidth intensive users. We propose a method to efficiently integrate a wireless network over a flexible optical backbone. The proposed method is built upon the light-trails optical platform and involves a unique control layer that adapts to an overlaid wireless network. Here, we propose a cross-layer protocol that enables seamless communication for these "light-trains". We also show benefits in terms of throughput, end-to-end delay, bandwidth efficiency and scalability of such a scheme through a simulation study.