COMMUNICATIONS & SIGNALING
MAKING 5G A RAIL REALITY
5
BY KARSTEN OBERLE, HEAD OF RAIL, NOKIA ENTERPRISE TEPS DIVISION G wireless communications will be a big part of the railway industry’s future. 5G systems will provide many new capabilities, higher reliability, lower latencies and ultra-broadband connectivity to support many new and important applications. But making 5G a reality and moving on from GSM-R or other legacy radio technologies is complex. The questions are, how soon, and what is the best route to get there? There are different aspects of the transition to consider. The railway industry has long used wireless 26 Railway Age // May 2020
communications as part of its essential infrastructure. Originally specified in 2000, GSM-R has been the most prevalent system outside of North America, used on more than 13,000 route-miles on a daily basis, worldwide. But, as it is based on 2G+ mobile technology, GSM-R is getting a bit long in the tooth, especially as mobile network operators are now moving from 4G to 5G in most of the world. In North America, there have been a variety of wireless technologies, with VHF and UHF still being used for voice communications. In the U.S., for example, Positive Train Control (PTC) uses the 220 MHz band, and Locotrol
(for Distributed Power) uses 900 MHz. With this in mind, the UIC, the railway standards-setting organization for just about everywhere globally except North America, is developing a standard that would replace many of these systems. It’s called the Future Railway Mobile Communications System (FRMCS). While the vision for FRMCS is to be functional without stipulating a particular technology, it is evident that 5G will be its foundational communications technology. Previous technologies such as GSM-R will be migrated to FRMCS. However, FRMCS is not merely a replacement for GSM-R, as it will introduce railwayage.com
