Communication Technologies Support to Railway Infrastructure and Operations
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Downloaded from orbit.dtu.dk on: Oct 06, 2021 Communication Technologies Support to Railway Infrastructure and Operations Sniady, Aleksander Link to article, DOI: 10.11581/DTU:00000010 Publication date: 2015 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link back to DTU Orbit Citation (APA): Sniady, A. (2015). Communication Technologies Support to Railway Infrastructure and Operations. DTU Fotonik. https://doi.org/10.11581/DTU:00000010 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Communication Technologies Support to Railway Infrastructure and Operations Aleksander Sniady Ph.D. Thesis May 2015 Communication Technologies Support to Railway Infrastructure and Operations Aleksander Sniady´ Ph.D. Thesis Networks Technology & Service Platforms DTU Fotonik Technical University of Denmark May 2015 To my parents and grandparents. Supervisors: José Soler Lars Dittmann Technical University of Denmark DTU Fotonik Department of Photonics Engineering This thesis is a part of RobustRailS project, Ørsteds Plads, Building 343, which is funded by The Danish Council for 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark Strategic Research. www.fotonik.dtu.dk www.robustrails.man.dtu.dk DOI: 10.11581/DTU:00000010 Cover photo credits: Rafał Zmuda˙ Abstract GSM-Railways (GSM-R), which is state-of-the-art railway mobile communication technology, is gradually replacing legacy analogue radio systems. Although GSM-R is an unquestionable achievement in terms of European railway interoperability, from a telecommunication point of view, it is an obsolete technology. In the research work presented in this thesis, GSM-R technology is analysed and its main shortcomings are identified, namely: lack of capacity, limited data transmission capabilities, and inefficiency in radio resource usage. Due to these significant disadvantages, alternative mobile technologies are considered to replace GSM-R in the future. This thesis is focused on Long Term Evolution (LTE) as one of the most likely successors to GSM-R. As a technology designed for commercial purposes, LTE has to be investigated specifically in railway environment. Using computer-based simulations, the LTE network is examined in various scenarios modelling typical railway conditions. The transmission performance offered by LTE is analysed under worst-case assumptions in terms of traffic load, base station density, and user speed. The results demonstrate that LTE fulfils transmission requirements set for the two most important railway applications: European Train Control System (ETCS) signalling and railway-specific voice communication. Therefore, LTE is technically capable of replacing GSM-R as the communication network for the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). Moreover, the simulation results show that LTE offers a significant improvement over GSM-R in terms of transmission capacity and performance. Thus, LTE as a ii railway communication technology would create an opportunity to introduce new business-supporting applications, which could enhance railway operation. The demand for such applications is growing in railways, but the GSM-R networks cannot deliver them. Furthermore, a radio access architecture based on cooperating macro and micro cells is proposed in the thesis. This heterogeneous network architecture, which is novel for railways, may bring numerous advantages, such as high network availability and reduction of inter-cell handover rate for running trains. It also enables railways to use new high-frequency radio bands, which is not a feasible option in the classical railway radio deployments. Simulation results indicate that the macro/micro architecture offers huge capacity increase, which can be used for providing bandwidth-demanding applications, such as video surveillance. All in all, this thesis presents a feasible evolution in the field of railway com- munications. LTE technology together with the novel heterogeneous architecture may transform railway mobile networks from being a bottleneck of the system into becoming its strong asset. Résumé Radiokommunikationssystemet GSM-R (GSM-Railways), der er det nyeste system til jernbaneformål, er ved at erstatte ældre analoge radiosystemer. Selv om GSM-R er et ubetinget fremskridt hvad angår de europæiske jernbaners samarbejde, så er det teknologisk set en forældet teknologi. Forskningsarbejdet, der præsenteres i denne afhandling, analyserer GSM-R teknologien og identificerer de vigtigste ulemper: mangel på kapacitet, begrænset mulighed for data transmission og dårlig udnyttelse af radio ressourcerne. På grund af disse betydelige ulemper ser vi på alternative mobilteknologier, der kan erstatte GSM-R i fremtiden. Denne afhandling fokuserer på systemet LTE (Long Term Evolution), som er en af de mest sandsynlige afløsere for GSM-R. Da LTE-teknologien er udviklet til generelle kommercielle formål, må den analyseres med henblik på specifik anven- delse i jernbane-miljø. Ved hjælp af computerbaserede simuleringer undersøges LTE-netværk under værst tænkelige scenarier med hensyn til trafikbelastning, tæt- hed af basisstationer og brugerhastighed. Resultaterne viser, at LTE opfylder de krav, der stilles til de to vigtigste jernbaneanvendelser: signalering i European Train Control System (ECTS) og jernbane-specifik talekommunikation. LTE er derfor i stand til at erstatte GSM-R som kommunikationsnet for European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). Simulationsresultaterne viser endvidere, at LTE vil være et betydeligt frem- skridt i forhold til GSM-R med hensyn til transmissionskapacitet og ydeevne. LTE vil iv således som kommunikationsteknologi åbne op for introduktion af nye forretnings- understøttende anvendelser, som vil kunne styrke jernbanedriften. Efterspørgslen efter sådanne anvendelser er voksende, men GSM-R netværk kan ikke tilbyde dem. I afhandlingen foreslås der endvidere en arkitektur for radionetadgang baseret på samspil mellem makro- og mikroceller. Denne heterogene netværksarkitektur, der er ny inden for jernbane kommunikationsnet, tilbyder talrige fordele så som høj tilgængelighed og reduceret hyppighed for handover for kørende tog. Den tillader også jernbanerne at bruge nye højfrekvensradiobånd, hvilket ikke er en mulighed i klassiske jernbane kommunikationsnet. Simuleringsresultaterne viser, at makro/mikro arkitekturen åbner op for en enorm kapacitetsforøgelse, som gør det muligt at tilbyde båndbreddekrævende anvendelser, så som videoovervågning. Sammenfattende anviser denne afhandling en mulig udvikling inden for jern- banekommunikation. LTE-teknologien i samspil med en ny heterogen arkitektur gør det muligt at transformere mobile netværk fra at være en flaskehals i jernbane- systemer til at være et stærkt aktiv. Acknowledgements I would not be able to complete the work that is presented in this thesis without help of many people who were around me during my Ph.D. studies. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors: José Soler and Lars Dittmann, whose guidance was behind everything that I have achieved. I am grateful to Marion Berbineau and Mohamed Kassab for their hospitality and fruitful collaboration. Also, thanks to the participants of RobustRailS project for all of the interesting meetings and knowledge sharing. I would like to thank the members of Networks Technology & Service Platforms group, who created such a nice working environment. Special thanks to Ying Yan, Michael Berger, Villy Bæk Iversen, Cosmin Caba, Jahanzeb Farooq, Vaidas Karosas, and Szymon Sniady´ for proof-reading and helpful comments on this thesis. Thanks to my family and friends. I cannot imagine completing these studies without encouragement from my parents and support of my friends—those here in Denmark, those a bit further away and those at the other side of the world. The most special thanks to Joana, whose invaluable help, support, and love accompanied me during the good and the bad days. I would also like to express my gratitude to The Danish Council for Strategic Research—the primary founder of my Ph.D. work—and also to Tourbo Fonden, Otto Mønsteds Fond, and Institut Français in Denmark for the grants that allowed me to conduct my research and to publish the results. Aleksander Sniady´ vi Contents List of Contents vii List of Figures xi List of Tables xv List of Acronyms xvii Ph.D. Publications xxi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Brief history of the railway communication . 2 1.2 Future evolution . 3 1.3 Structure of the thesis . 4 2 Motivation 7 2.1 European Rail Traffic Management System . 8 2.2 European Train Control System (ETCS) . 10 2.2.1 Shortcomings of the classical signalling . 10 2.2.2 Introduction to ETCS . 11 2.3 GSM-Railways (GSM-R) . 14 2.3.1 Railways’ choice of GSM-R . 15 2.3.2 Differences to the commercial standard . 15 2.4 GSM-R principles and shortcomings . 17 viii CONTENTS 2.4.1 Main features of GSM-R . 18 2.4.2