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Reliability of the GSM-R Communication System Against Railway Electromagnetic Interferences

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Reliability of the GSM-R Communication System Against Railway Electromagnetic Interferences Challenge H: For an even safer and more secure railway Reliability of the GSM-R Communication System against Railway Electromagnetic Interferences S. Dudoyer, N. Ben Slimen, V. Deniau and M. Berbineau Univ Lille Nord de France- F-59000 Lille, IFSTTAR, LEOST, F-59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France E-mails: {name}@ifsttar.fr Abstract In this article, we study the reliability of the GSM-R system against the electromagnetic (EM) disturbances present in its railway operating environment. We thus first present the results of electromagnetic environment characterization campaigns on board moving trains in EM conditions representative of those met during a train journey. Then, we describe a new experimental protocol that has been developed in laboratory for immunity testing of GSM-R mobiles with the aim of highlighting the most influential elements on the operational quality of service of the GSM-R system. Introduction Context The GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Trains control communications - Railways) is a key center component of the new ERTMS/ETCS (European Rail Traffic Management Base Transceiver System/European train Control System) Station standard. It is a digital wireless communication system between trains and control centers deployed in Europe in order to ensure the interoperability of Data and train movements on the European voice transmissions territory. This system carries the Embedded GSM-R signalling information directly to the mobile cabin and then to the train driver, enabling higher train speeds and traffic density with a high level of safety. It will ensure voice and data transmissions between trains and control centers and between trains for control-command applications and other specific railway applications in order to enhance train operations. The GSM-R radio layer is based on the GSM phase2+ standard. It employs two elements: fixed Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) installed along the railway tracks and GSM-R mobile stations embedded on board trains and connected to GSM-R antennas fixed on the roof. Challenges Because of their proximity to the catenary, the GSM-R antennas can receive electromagnetic (EM) transient disturbances induced by defects in the sliding contact between the pantograph and the catenary. Moreover, the GSM-R coexists with other communication systems such as the public GSM and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System) which employs frequency bands (E-GSM) adjacent to the GSM-R ones and whose antennas are sometimes fixed on the same poles as those for GSM- R. Since the GSM-R will have to ensure the transmission of voice and data (mainly data signalling) essential for safer and secure railway, it is necessary to guarantee its immunity against the EM disturbances provided by the railway environment. Challenge H: For an even safer and more secure railway The GSM-R system As previously mentioned, the GSM-R is based on the GSM standard but it has its own frequency channels. Two specific frequency bands are allocated to the GSM-R: 876-880 MHz for the up-link (from the trains to the base stations) and 921-925 MHz for the down-link (from the base stations to the trains). Thus the GSM-R frequency bands are directly adjacent to the E-GSM band, as can be seen in figure 1, which is also allocated to UMTS. Figure 1. Frequency bands of the coexistent communication systems The GSM-R provides advanced functions specifically developed for the railway domain to meet railway requirements and called ASCI (Advance Speech Call Items). In particular, it offers applications such as functional addressing, location dependant addressing, voice group call services (VGCS), voice broadcast services (VBS), call priority and call preemption in case of emergency. As in the case of the GSM, the frequency spacing between each physical channel is 200 kHz. It is also a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) system: for each carrier frequency, data transmission is made of periodical TDMA frames. Each frame is divided in 8 time slots (TS) of 577 µs and has a period of 4.615 ms. Each time slot is attributed to one user, thus 8 different users can employ the same frequency communication channel. Each user has then access to the channel in turn and during 577 µs (= time slot duration), as shown in figure 2. One time slot contains a burst composed of 156 bits including 148 of information, which give us a one bit transmission duration of about 3.7 µs. GSM is a circuit mode system. GPRS is deployed based on the existing infrastructure. In this paper we only consider the circuit mode system. Carrier frequencies physical channels 924.8 MHz TDMA frame= 4.6 ms 924.6 MHz user 4 user 5 user 6 user 7 user 8 user 1 user 2 user 3 user 4 user 5 user 6 user 7 user 8 user user 3 user user 1 user 2 user Frequency 8 logical channels Time slot 577 μs 921.4 MHz burst 200 kHz 921.2 MHz 3.7 µs bit time Time Figure 2. Sharing of the users time access to the GSM-R channels Concerning the coverage level of the GSM-R signals, we give in figure 3 one result of a measurement campaign carried out on board trains on railway lines equipped with GSM-R [1]. We will give more details on this campaign (localisation, measurement configuration and results) in next section. This figure shows the evolution of the maximal reception level (down-link signal) measured in dBm with a spectrum analyzer over the last GSM-R channel and during one travel from Schaerbeek to Herent in Belgium. As can be seen, the reception level varies from -20 dBm when the GSM-R antenna is very close to the BTS to -90 dBm when the train (thus the GSM-R antenna fixed on its roof) is halfway between two successive BTS. Challenge H: For an even safer and more secure railway Figure 3. Coverage level measured over the last GSM-R channel (924.8 MHz) along the travel with a spectrum analyzer Characterization of the EM disturbances received by the GSM-R antenna EM disturbances which can affect the GSM-R communication system Two types of EM disturbances can be received by the GSM-R antenna: transient signals and permanent noise [1]. The transient signals are produced by defects in the sliding contact between the pantograph and the catenary. Indeed, when losses of contact occur between the pantograph and the catenary, transient signals are produced because of the created potential difference between these two elements. Those signals are then conducted by the different metallic elements that constitute the pantograph and the catenary, which result in transient emissions covering large frequency bands including the frequency channels of the GSM-R. The permanent noise comes from the other communication systems the GSM-R has to coexist with: public GSM and UMTS. As previously shown in figure 1, the GSM-R frequency bands are directly adjacent to the E-GSM band. Consequently, public GSM and UMTS signals can cover some of the GSM-R channels at the end of the GSM-R frequency bands and interfere with GSM-R communication signals if the mandatory modulation characteristics are not respected. Two measurement campaigns were carried out in order to characterize the EM operating environment of the GSM-R system: one for permanent disturbances and one for transient signals. Measurement campaign to characterize the permanent disturbances The measurement campaign to characterize permanent noise was performed in Belgium on board moving train from SNCB on railway lines equipped with GSM-R. Following figure 4 shows the rail route for which measurement results are presented in this section [1]. Figure 4. Rail route of the measurement campaign During this run, a spectrum analyser was connected to a GSM-R antenna fixed on the roof of the train to measure the maximal signal levels received by the antenna on the 850 MHz - 1 GHz frequency Challenge H: For an even safer and more secure railway band. We then obtained the coverage levels of GSM as well as GSM-R signals. Figure 5 makes a comparison between coverage measurements over the last GSM-R frequency channel (924.8 MHz), the first public GSM one (925.2 MHz) and the intermediate channel (925 MHz) which is supposed to be unused [1]. z Figure 5. Measurements of coverage level for the last GSM-R channel (924.8 MHz), unused intermediate channel (925 MHz) and first public GSM one (925.2 MHz) These measurements show that the public GSM or UMTS signals on channel 925.2 MHz overlap the adjacent (925 MHz) and alternate (924.8 MHz) channels. For example, we observe that the first peak on public GSM channel is also visible on the two other channels with lower power levels. Indeed, over the 925.2 MHz channel, the level of this peak is -44 dBm and over the others it decreases until reaching a level of -75 dBm on the GSM-R channel. Due to the fact that (according to the measurement results presented in figure 3), the lowest level that the GSM-R signals can reach, when the train is halfway between two BTS, is about -90 dBm, the level of -75 dBm for public GSM or UMTS signals on the 924.8 MHz channel could be sufficient to disturb the GSM-R communications taking place on this channel. Measurement campaign to characterize the transient disturbances The second measurement campaign to collect transient disturbances was carried out in France with SNCF on the railway line Blois - Saint Pierre des Corps - Nantes. The results we present in this article come from the measurements performed between Nantes and Saint Pierre des Corps on board a train whose cruising speed was about 160 km/h and maximal speed was 200 km/h and which operated with a 25 000 V AC (50 Hz) supply voltage.
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