Tech
Nokia deploys world’s first 1900 MHz 5G radio network for Deutsche Bahn | Computer Weekly
Following Nokia’s 5G radio service designed to deliver high-capacity, high-performance and resilient real-time communications to global rail operators, Germany’s national railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB) has deployed a Nokia 1900 MHz (n101) 5G radio network solution with a 5G Standalone (SA) core, said to be the first commercial network installation of its kind.
The technology is now running on live outdoor test tracks and the deployment is described as an industry breakthrough that allows DB to use a commercial 5G solution claims to meet full meets railways’ mission-critical needs supporting the forthcoming Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) specifications.
In the coming decade, the FRMCS will act as an upgrade to the current 2G Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway (GSM-R) – designed to support essential voice and data for train control and operations – and become the next-generation global standard designed for all railways. The 5G-based successor, with built-in security and enhanced reliability, is designed to enable enhanced automation, new digital applications, improved passenger services and secure cross-border communication.
Nokia believes the shift to a 5G offering introduces powerful capabilities that align perfectly with the operational needs of modern railways, particularly in border crossing scenarios. Some of the main benefits for rail operators and passengers include automated train operations, passenger information systems, mission-critical voice communication and smart rail maintenance.
The technology is being implemented at DB’s digital railway test field in the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge, Germany), running on live trains. Key features include built-in failover, self-healing capabilities and real-time monitoring to ensure high availability and efficiency.
The contract extends Deutsche Bahn’s ongoing test trials with Nokia’s 5G SA core and 3700 MHz (n78) radio network, while upgrading to a new solution that includes Nokia’s 1900 MHz (n101) 5G radio network equipment from its AirScale portfolio and optimised 5G SA core. Designed for a smooth migration from GSM-R to FRMCS, it is attributed with delivering the high reliability and low latency needed for modern rails.
The solution will also be used for the European FP2-MORANE-2 project, which evolves from earlier FRMCS initiatives to advance the digitalisation of rail across Europe. The EU-funded FP2-MORANE-2 project is designed to will pave the way for the deployment of FRMCS in Europe, following the path set by its predecessor, MORANE, for GSM-R.
Involving 13 European railways, the project will conduct tests in laboratories operated by Ericsson, Nokia, and Kontron, followed by field trials on lines managed by ADIF, DB, TRAFIKVERKET in collaboration with TELIA, and PRORAIL in collaboration with KPN.
Commenting on the deployment, Rainer Fachinger, head of telecom platforms at DB InfraGO, said: “Deutsche Bahn wants to benefit from modern 5G-based telecommunications to upgrade the railway communication infrastructure. Collaborating with technology experts like Nokia is key for DB to bring the latest innovations into our real-world operations. This deployment on test tracks builds on a successful pre-FRMCS 5G trial conducted with Nokia and aims to standardise our private mobile network as a foundation for further pilots and future roll-out.”
Rolf Werner, head of Europe at Nokia, added: “Nokia and DB have been frontrunners in advancing FRMCS. We are proud to deliver the first-ever commercial 5G solution that utilises the 1900 MHz spectrum band on the rail track.
“This is a milestone that will unlock key benefits for DB, including automated train operations, smart maintenance, and intelligent infrastructure and stations. We believe this launch will serve as an important benchmark for FRMCS upgrades in rail networks around the world in the coming years.”
Tech
Some of Our Favorite Valentine’s Day Gifts Are on Sale
Love is in the air, and the WIRED Reviews team has been hard at work finding all sorts of Valentine’s Day deals. From sexy gifts for lovers to date night boxes to sex toys, we’ve got plenty of hand-tested recommendations, and many of them are on sale right now. If you’re still shopping for a gift, you can get yourself or your lover(s) something we recommend at a discount. Just keep in mind that you’ll want to shop sooner than later if you need the items to arrive before February 14.
Be sure to check out our related buying guides, including the Best Valentine’s Day Gifts and the Best Chocolate Delivery Boxes.
The Adventure Challenge Couples Edition for $38 ($7 off)
This is one of our favorite date night boxes, and it also makes an excellent Valentine’s Day gift. Clip the coupon on the Amazon page to get it for $30. It has 50 different scratch-off date ideas. There are symbols indicating the budget needed, whether you’ll need a babysitter, how much time it takes, and other date parameters, but the specific date itself is hidden until you reveal it like a scratch-off lottery ticket. If you’re running low on date ideas or just want some fun (and sometimes cheesy) spontaneity, this book is worth checking out—especially on sale.
We-Vibe Sync 2 for $135 ($34 off)
This is an excellent sex toy for long-distance couples, but you don’t have to be far apart geographically in order to enjoy it with your partner. The Sync 2 can be worn by someone with a vulva, either solo or during penetrative sex, and someone else controls the device using the remote control. It’s quiet and powerful, and its dual stimulation makes it approachable and fun for experienced couples as well as those who are new to using sex toys together.
Tech
The Moto Watch Looks and Feels Like a Polar Fitness Tracker—but More Fun
However, rendered here in Motorola’s Watch app, everything looks fun and easy! Motorola (and Polar, I guess) uses Apple’s “close your rings” approach, with active minutes, steps, and calories. I particularly like that you can now use Polar’s sleep tracking with a cheaper Android watch. Polar takes into account sleep time, solidity (whether or not your sleep was interrupted), and regeneration to give you a Nightly Recharge Status.
You can still click through and see your ANS, but there’s a lot more context surrounding it. Also, the graphs are prettier. I compared the sleep, heart rate, and stress measurements to my Oura Ring 4, and I found no big discrepancies. The Moto Watch tended to be a little bit more generous in my sleep and activity measurements (7 hours and 21 minutes of sleep instead of 7 hours and 13 minutes, or 3,807 steps as compared to 3,209), but that’s usual for lower-end fitness trackers that have fewer and less-sensitive sensors.
On that note, I do have one major hardware gripe. Onboard GPS is meant to make it easier to just run out the door and start your watch. I didn’t find this to be the case. Whatever processor is in the watch (Motorola has conveniently chosen not to reveal this), it’s just really slow to connect to satellites and iffy whenever it does. This isn’t a huge deal when I’m just walking my dog or lifting weights in my living room, but it constantly cuts out when I’m outside and doesn’t have the ability to fill in the blanks, as another, more expensive fitness tracker would do.
It’s just really annoying to constantly get pinged about satellite loss and to have a quarter-mile or a half-mile cut out of your runs. That’s how I know the speaker works—it was constantly telling me it lost satellite connection during activities.
Finally, the screen and buttons are really sensitive. It does give you an option to lock the screen, but even then, I found myself accidentally unlocking it from time to time and turning the recording off when I didn’t mean to.
As I write this, I have seven different smartwatches from different brands sitting on my desk. If you’re looking for a cheap, attractive, and effective Android-compatible smartwatch, I would say that the CMF Watch 3 Pro is your best choice. However, I do think the integration with Polar was well done, and the price point is not that bad. I’m definitely keeping an eye out for what Motorola might have to offer in the future.
Tech
These WIRED-Tested Automatic Pet Feeders Are the Cat’s Meow
Compare Our Picks
Others Tested
Photograph: Molly Higgins
Closer Pets C200 2-Meal Automatic Pet Feeder for $50: This automatic feeder is super simple, which is both its weakness and its strength. It’s essentially two shallow plastic containers with stainless steel inserts (both dishwasher safe) and tamper-resistant lids that are locked and automatically open using an old-school egg-style timer that runs on a AA battery rather than electricity. Although the container has an ice pack to keep the wet food cool, after one night it lost virtually all of its coolness. There’s a lid-link clip attachment, a small piece of plastic that links the lids to ensure they will open at the same time, which is super helpful for owners of two cats like me. I wish the timer were electric so I could program it to the exact time I want it open, rather than guesstimating the timing on the little marks. However, this is a simple solution to help make sure both my cats are given wet food without me having to wake up at the crack of dawn.
Photograph: Molly Higgins
Oneisall Cordless WiFi Automatic Cat Feeder for $50: I had high hopes for this cordless feeder that boasts a rechargeable battery with a 100-day life and an integrated app, but it’s just too unreliable. Through the app, you can program up to 10 daily meals (in 1-12 portions each), monitor pets’ eating habits, and customize meal calls. Unlike other apps, you’re not able to choose portion size, but instead have to multiply the number of servings. The app gave me constant problems, and would often disconnect from the feeder and be unable to reconnect to WiFi. Luckily, I was able to program meals via the screen and buttons, but it would’ve been a whole lot nicer if the app had worked reliably.
Do Not Recommend
Courtesy of Amazon
Catit Pixi Smart 6-Meal Feeder for $117: Like others on this list, the Catit Pixi wet and dry feeder uses ice packs to keep wet food fresh and rotates the meals in six compartments on a set schedule. The schedule can be programmed via the app or changed on the body of the feeder. At this price point, the app shouldn’t be this limited and glitchy. The schedule is available in military time only, and the app is extremely limited—you can only set the meal schedule for the same day, and when I wanted to do only two to three meals a day spread over two days, I had to reschedule the meals for every new day. The feeder didn’t keep it cold enough to spread the meals out and the wet food was not at a safe eating temperature. At this price point, just get the Petlibro Polar wet feeder for a few bucks more.
Catit Pixi Smart Cat Feeder for $114: Kibble is stored in the body of this dry feeder, but it doesn’t have a window to visually check food levels. The calendar to plan meals shows only a week at a time, and although it should repeat daily based on the schedule, I found that some days there would be no schedule despite setting one up. The Pixi also doesn’t tell you how much food was dispensed; it just refers to it as a “portion”—I manually measured and found the portion was less than a tablespoon of kibble. After using it continuously for more than a month, I found it was extremely glitchy and almost never reliably stuck to the programmed schedule, sometimes skipping meals altogether. This feeder is potentially dangerous, and I’d caution pet parents against relying on it.
Closer Pets C500 for $75: This automatic wet and dry feeder can schedule up to four pre-portioned meals (and one meal given manually) that are opened on a timer system using three AA batteries (sold separately). The user presets the four times they want the bowls, which have ice packs underneath, to rotate. The bowls are quite deep and narrow and aren’t super easy for cats to reach, which could cause whisker fatigue. And although there are two relatively large ice packs, when I checked on the feeder after a night’s sleep, the packs weren’t very cold. This may be OK for kibble, but wet food was kept at unsafe temperatures, and my cats couldn’t reach all of the food.
Why Use an Automatic Feeder?
Automatic feeders are great for pet owners who want to help manage their pets’ weight and monitor eating patterns. Plus, they allow for a lot more control and precision for owners to learn exactly how much their cat is eating and when. Because cats are naturally more nocturnal, many have the annoying habit of waking you up in the early hours demanding food, and these allow you to set up a schedule that fits more to their schedule without inconveniencing yours.
Of course, it’s never recommended to leave pets alone for long periods, but these automatic feeders give more peace of mind and are a whole lot healthier for your pet than leaving a huge amount of food for free-feeding while you’re away for the night. Simply put, it’s an easier way to feed and monitor your cat’s health with less work for you, the human.
I have two rescue cats, ages 4 and 5, and they eat two wet-food meals a day and small amounts of dry kibble throughout the day. Vets (and TikTokkers) have successfully persuaded me to move toward a primarily wet-food diet, however, which has a higher water content. This provides more moisture in their diet, which helps with potentially life-threatening problems like UTIs, which are especially prevalent in male cats. I still like to give smaller dry-food meals throughout the day for them to satisfy their need for crunch.
For dry food, I use Hill’s Science Diet, and for wet food I use Friskies’ Shreds variety. (Yes, only Shreds. Fellow cat owners will understand.)
I set up the feeders, noting ease of set up, potential problems, and app navigation. I also tested various schedules and manual feedings through the app, noting any issues. I used each of the feeders for at least a week, if not more.
How Long Can I Leave My Cat Alone?
Although cats are generally thought of as less high-maintenance than dogs, it’s still not good to leave your cat for prolonged periods. Under dire circumstances, you can leave a cat alone for 24 to 48 hours with scheduled feedings and a clean water source, but it’s not ideal—especially for cats with health issues, kittens younger than a year, or very elderly cats. Although these feeders are automatic, and meals can be scheduled in advance and over multiple days, our pets still need their human pals around for enrichment, care, and well, love.
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