ALE Professional Services secure key transportation projects

Frederic Vogel

March 13, 2025

ALE Professional Services help general contractors and customers reduce risks and accelerate large transportation projects.

Transportation projects are complex and require different systems to work perfectly together. These systems must remain fully operational in harsh, mission-critical environments for many years. They include networks and communication systems, Operations Control Centers (OCCs), safety services, passenger information and many business applications.

For general contractors and customers, this means:

• Using technology from different vendors to build turnkey projects
• Choosing suppliers with the right technology, experience and successful projects with skilled teams, proven methods and strong planning
• Working with the supplier’s Professional Services team to ensure a smooth rollout, reduce risks and deploy on time

Proven field experience

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s Professional Services organization has the experience needed for success.

Our team of 160 experts across the globe helps general contractors and customers deliver successful transportation projects. They handle complex projects from design to implementation, including solution deployment, customer ecosystem integration, new application development, application customization and long-term support. 

Long-term support is a key factor. Transportation projects require hardware and software to remain operational for long periods of time, typically more than 15 years. ALE Professional Services are committed to ensuring the longevity of the solution by maintaining the skills of the supporting teams with the appropriate expertise. 

Meeting the unique needs of the transport sector with tailored applications

Tailoring solutions involves studying, planning, designing and deploying as well as providing support and maintenance across the solution’s lifecycle. This process requires teams of developers, user interface designers and technical coordinators with expertise in products, APIs and transport ecosystems.

Here are some real-world examples of our customizations for transportation customers:

Empower OCC communications

Transport operators rely on their OCC to ensure passenger safety, especially during emergencies. ALE Professional Services implement a Dispatch Console to provide robust features including visual call handling, call queue management, conference setup and efficient call pick-up for OCC agents. Some customizations help localize emergency phone calls and trigger the nearest video camera to improve response time.

Secure onboard communications for driverless trains

Unmanned trains require secure and robust mission-critical communications. ALE Professional Services provide the onboard telephony equipment to manage operational communications, including calls and text messages between the OCC and onboard intercom, as well as recordings. Their security and robustness are based on built-in redundancy, allowing automatic switchover of SIP intercom communications. ALE Professional Services provided this type of solution for the Grand Paris initiative, with strong project coordination to reduce risk and secure the customer communications infrastructure.

Enhance voice recording capacity

Operational communications must be recorded and tracked for proof of safe operations and post-incident investigations. However, communications recordings come from various sources, such as onboard intercoms used by passengers, LTE communications used by ground staff and OCC PBX-based communications. ALE Professional Services develop, install and maintain a centralized recording solution that improves safety, efficiency and compliance.

Accurately locate emergency calls

At the OCC level, a supervision system monitors the different communications subsystems, including telephony, Emergency Help Point (EHP) intercoms and video surveillance cameras on the platforms. If a passenger needs assistance, the OCC urgently requires contextual information. ALE Professional Services adapt protocols to connect the communications server and supervision system and obtain relevant location information, improving emergency response.

Quickly deploy emergency evacuation plan

A mass notification solution is crucial for evacuation plans. The OCC activates the plan, synchronizing emergency actions through an engagement dashboard for call prioritization and real time monitoring. ALE Professional Services script the evacuation scenario and customize the web interface dashboard to give safety staff full visibility and control during emergency situations. 

Optimizing transport network performance with architecture design

Architecture design can significantly influence the safety and reliability of a mission-critical network infrastructure.

For example, consider a redundant and resilient network that must support IoT connectivity (such as a high-bandwidth video surveillance system) in harsh environments while delivering low latency and achieving rapid convergence time. This network must also accommodate specific requirements for rail signaling, security and operational technology networks (such as baggage handling systems), all of which leads to heterogeneous traffic using multiple protocols. 

ALE Professional Services’ network architects first analyze the applications running on the network and the criticality of their operations. Their expertise covers network assessments, protocol adaptation, cybersecurity enhancements and seamless integration with existing systems. 

They then provide comprehensive solution designs, recommendations and an implementation plan, such as the one delivered to SBB, the Swiss national railway operator. The plan reduces risks and ensure high performance in harsh environments.

Managing projects with confidence

Because transportation communications and network architectures are complex and mission-critical, ALE Professional Services provides the following benefits:

• They integrate the technology building blocks into the existing transport ecosystem to maximize safety and efficiency
• They provide long-term support, ensuring the reliability and performance throughout the solution lifecycle
• They operate across the globe

Their expertise helps general contractors and customers manage risks, schedules and budgets with confidence.