Ericsson Partners with Sunswift Racing to Enhance Race Experience with 5G and Satellite Communications

Ericsson has announced a partnership with Sunswift Racing to provide significant enhancements in wireless WAN communications through Ericsson’s Intelligent Link Bonding technology. This collaboration aims to ensure uninterrupted connectivity for both racing and support vehicles during the upcoming Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in outback Australia.

Sunswift Racing, a team based at the University of New South Wales, is committed to pioneering sustainable transport through the development of world-class prototype electric cars. Renowned for its success in previous World Solar Challenge events, the team will compete in this year’s race from Darwin to Adelaide in August.

The World Solar Challenge requires competitors to rely on race and vehicle performance data to make real-time strategic decisions. With Ericsson's wireless connectivity solutions, Sunswift Racing will have access to essential telemetry data, including information on the solar car's battery, electric motor, solar panel efficiency, and vehicle speed. This reliable connectivity will also facilitate live video streaming, IP Push-to-Talk communications for status updates, and uninterrupted access to the internet.

Ericsson's Cradlepoint ruggedized R1900 routers will connect to 5G and satellite networks, managed through Ericsson NetCloud. This setup will allow for multi-carrier connectivity back to Sunswift’s headquarters. The Intelligent Link Bonding technology will optimize bandwidth across all available WAN links, ensuring consistent performance and always-on connectivity. This capability is crucial for real-time telemetry data sharing and video streaming during the race.

Ericsson's Intelligent Link Bonding offers several key features to enhance resiliency and performance:

• Flow Duplication: This feature duplicates application traffic across two WAN links simultaneously, ensuring high availability and reliability.
• Flow Balancing: By distributing traffic across multiple links based on predefined weights or percentages, this feature optimizes performance while reducing costs.
• Bandwidth Aggregation: Combining two or more WAN connections increases overall bandwidth, significantly improving performance for large data transfers, including real-time video uploads.

These intelligent bonding features can be seamlessly enabled on Ericsson Cradlepoint routers equipped with SD-WAN. Additional capabilities such as application-based traffic steering, forward error correction, and advanced AI insights further enhance connectivity.

Ericsson's commitment to providing uninterrupted connectivity during high-stakes events is evident in this collaboration. The Intelligent Link Bonding technology empowers organizations to achieve exceptional application resiliency and performance, even in the most demanding mobile environments. As businesses increasingly adopt multi-WAN strategies, intelligent management of these connections becomes essential, showcasing the value of this technology in diverse enterprise settings.

Through this partnership with Sunswift Racing, Ericsson reinforces its dedication to advancing critical communications technology, enabling teams to perform at their peak during competitive events.