Rail
from the rail transport industry’s request for 3GPP to develop
in particular functional aliasing and location-based services,
which will allow group and individual calls to be routed based
on users’ tasks/assignments and locations.
The future-proofing that FRMCS offers the rail industry
goes beyond simply being a new technology. Markus
Myslivec, head of public transport solutions at Frequentis,
says it is being “described and specified to be bearer or
radio technology independent”, and that unlike GSM-R
where “functionalities affect all layers of communication,
even down to the physical layer”, FRMCS keeps all the
railway-specific functionality in the application layer. This
will free the rail community from being dependent on a
single radio access technology, and as FRMCS can take
advantage of the other features in 3GPP that have been
(or are being) developed for 5G, they may be able to take
advantage of network slicing and share parts of the system
with public mobile network operators and/or public safety
agencies (more on this later).
The fact that GSM-R is currently used to allow a longdistance
train to travel across Europe, without encountering
any communication issues, creates some logistical headaches
for the transition to FRMCS. Simply put, a country cannot
unilaterally switch off GSM-R and turn on FRMCS
overnight – support for GSM-R must remain throughout
the transition.
David Rothbaum, director of business development,
mission-critical and private networks at Ericsson, highlights
the time required to retrofit all the rolling stock – all the
hundreds of locomotives – as a multi-year project in its own
right. He also notes that many countries (such as the UK)
award licences to train operating companies and it is not
possible to modify a licence save at the end of the licence
lease period (some licence periods in the UK are as long as
A country cannot unilaterally switch
off GSM-R and turn on FRMCS
overnight – support for GSM-R must
remain throughout the transition
seven to 10 years). He therefore expects that the transition
from GSM-R to FRMCS will be much quicker in countries
where the long-distance trains are still run by the main
railway operator, such as France and Germany.
Frequentis’s Myslivec believes it is possible for the first
transitions from GSM-R to FRMCS to be completed by
2030, and he adds that the European Union Agency for
Railways (ERA) is planning to publish a new version of the
Control Command and Signalling Technical Specification
for Interoperability (CCS TSI) in 2022. The TSIs define
the technical and operational standards which must be
met by each subsystem or part of a subsystem to meet the
essential requirements and ensure the interoperability of
the EU’s railway system. “We recently had an interesting
discussion (at UNITEL) with the ERA’s executive director
Josef Doppelbauer, who of course says this will happen. I
have my doubts because we are far away from completing
the technical standardisation. How can FRMCS be
introduced into legislation without the standards for it being
completed? I don’t think these will be complete before 2021,
or even 2022, then the CCS TSI can be adapted and then
you will see the first pilot; but I’m still convinced that this
will start by 2025, so 2030 is possible.”
According to Pierre Tane, business solutions expert,
mission-critical networks – digital solutions at Kontron
Transportation (formerly Kapsch CarrierCom), in some
countries including Switzerland, “there is pressure from the
regulators to shut down the GSM technology in the coming
years, which creates more incentive to move fast”. In this
scenario, he envisages that international rail corridors may
be handled differently from their domestic counterparts, to
maintain compliance with the TSI.
Tane adds that another possible factor that could drive
FRMCS adoption is the introduction of advanced train
control services, and higher levels of automation. However,
like Rothbaum, he is also aware of the challenges involved.
“When you look at the timescales for the introduction of
new systems in railways, usually if you want to proceed and
complete your migration you need to start somewhat early.”
He adds that some of his railway customers say they still have
analogue technology in parts of their countries despite GSMR’s
introduction more than 15 years ago. To him this implies
that “large networks will have to start reasonably early to be
able to complete their migration in the 2030-ish timeframe”
and that the coexistence of technologies should be approached
with a long duration of joint operation in mind (as compared
to an overnight switchover that has sometimes been suggested
by some industry stakeholders).
The spectrum question
Myslivec says that he doesn’t think there will be big
operational issues in terms of dispatching, control rooms
and applications (which are his company’s traditional
areas of focus), while these subsystems will still face huge
FRMCS isn’t
expected to
create major
issues for control
rooms but other
technologies
are expected to
cause upheavals
October 2019 @CritCommsToday 17