Information and Communications Technology on Trains Workshop

Prague 20th -21st October 2011

European railway industries ICT perspectives – GB

vision for the expected evolution

John Stafford

Control & Command Signal Engineer

Rail Safety and Standards Board

Great Britain

RSSB and Co-operation in the Railway Industry

Dept for

Transport

Network

Rail

Train

Operators

Supply

Chain

Supply

ChainORR

RSSB Provides

support and

facilitation for a wide

range of cross-

industry activities.

This is usually

achieved through

RSSB’s support of

cross-industry

working groups

and committees

RSSB is a not-for-

profit company

funded by major

stakeholders in the

railway industry,

through levies and

grants for research

from the Dept for

Transport, but is

independent of any

one party.

A Possible Future Vision GB/Europe

Source: Alcatel-Lucent

A Possible Future Vision…..

No single mobile data technology is likely to deliver all

the necessary services, but a combination of

technologies can within a co-ordinated strategy

Associated Research Projects

Project T964

Track-to-Train Communication Reliability Can

Be Improved By:-

improving the mobile equipment

Improving the fixed equipment

reducing this distance

…and including

stations and

offices for

disembarked

passengers &

staff

Track-to-Train Communication…..

Technology options are directly influenced by the

decision of whether equipment is onboard and/or

trackside, and if there is a combined safety-critical/non-

critical backhaul link

Aggregate Bandwidth Demand from Trains in 2018

Improve Mobile On-Train Coverage

XXXX

Distributed Antenna System (DAS)

DAS with RF-over-fibre

+ 8 carriages…

Signal Source

Signal Source

RRURRU

Signal Source MU

with antennas …or leaky feeder coaxial

dedicated optical fibre

Spectrum split suitable for coverage and capacity within a rail environment

UMTS/HSPA Wi-Fi

1800

Mobile

communications

bands for serving

rail routes

450-470

2500-2690

380 - 400

2100/1900 2400-2500

800 900

On train coverage and

capacity – small cells

Rail corridor coverage and

capacity

LTE/

WiMAX

TETRA/CDMA450

UMTS/HSPA

Wide area coverage

Local area coverage

Mobile

communications

technologies for

serving rail routes

LTE/WiMAX

Spectrum split …..

A challenge is to predict total quantity of spectrum and

balance between high and low frequencies needed to

serve operational and passenger requirements

Possible Migration Timeline

2010 2015 2020 2025 2030

GSM-R

4G Coverage

4G Capacity

3G

Safety Operational Comms

Other Railway Comms

Next generation Railway comms

Decide on the next

ERTMS radio bearer

technology

On-Train 2011-2015

GSM-R Modem

Spare

GSM900/1800

UMTS2100

WIMAX

ERTMS

ETCS

Processin

g

Siemens “GB”

Cab radio

“R” Layer

Processin

g

On-Train WiFi Coverage

2015-20202020-2025

LTE-Public

CNI-Network

Voice

MMI

Signalling

Data

Satellite

On-Train

Comms

Gateway

GSM-R Portal

GSM-R Data “Brick”

GSM-R Data “Brick”

GSM-R Voice “Brick”

Modem

Modem

GSM-R

4G

On-train …..

On-train communications gateway meeting IEC61375-2

in GB could enable a single integrated link technology

Hypothetical Examples of Future Inter-National Border Session Handover Scenarios

WIMAX &

Satellite

On train comms. gateway

4G

LTE-Public

CNI-Network

Satellite

WIMAX

CNI-Network&

LTE-Public4G

To Summarise .….

No single mobile data technology is likely to deliver all the necessary services,

but a combination of technologies can within a co-ordinated strategy

Technology options are directly influenced by the decision of

whether equipment is onboard and/or trackside, and if there is a

combined safety-critical/non-critical backhaul link

A challenge is to predict total quantity of spectrum and balance

between high and low frequencies needed to serve operational

and passenger requirements

Decide on the next ERTMS radio bearer technology

On-train communications gateway meeting IEC61375-2 in GB

could enable a single integrated link technology

Thank you for listening