
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1-1
COM-00-21-04 OCTOBER 2021
Version No.: A.1
SECTION 1
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
1
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The Siemens Airlink (software-defined) wireless base stations, fixed and mobile remote radios
are based on IEEE 802.16s (the standard for broadband, wireless, fixed/mobile access
systems) that enables wide-area, Internet Protocol connectivity. This allows railroads to
transition from multiple, single-purpose networks to a common, managed, multi-purpose/multi-
band network and realize a significant reduction of infrastructure and operating costs.
The A53689 Airlink Venus is a radio hardware platform within the Airlink radio networks. Being a
software defined radio, the same radio hardware can be configured as a base station (BS) or a
fixed or mobile remote station (RS) depending on the software loaded. For the base station,
BS5000 software is used and for the remote station, Cobalt software is used. Both software
platforms are covered by this manual.
Figure 1-1 A53689 Airlink Venus Radio
The Airlink radio network can be made up of Airlink Venus radios or used in conjunction with
Siemens’ other hardware platforms to build a multi-cell, point-to-multipoint (PtMP) networks
using IEEE 802.16 – 2017 wideband or narrowband technology. Due to its design, the radio can
be used through a wide range of frequencies 70 MHz to 6 GHz using channel sizes ranging from
12.5
kHz to 10 MHz.
1
The radio can be configured locally or remotely using Siemens’ Graphical User Interface (GUI),
Apollo or using SSH, or WinSCP. It is recommended for customers to use Apollo.
1
IEEE 802.16 – 2017 uses channel sizes from 100 kHz to 10 MHz. A revision to the standard known as IEEE
802.16t is in development to address smaller channel sizes down to 12.5 kHz. However, at this time Siemens
uses a modification of the IEEE 802.16 – 2017 for channel sizes less than 100 kHz.
.