GSM-R Implementation Status

Implementation status :
GSM-R
Robert SARFATI
UIC ERTMS/GSM-R Operators’ Group
Chairman
ETSI Technical Committee Rail Chairman
SYSTRA
FIRSE
Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

Operators Group Chairman Lille, 12-13 November 2013
Background: GSM-R an European choice
 In Europe, existing standard technologies were considered for the new

digital radio technology, The choice of GSM was finalized in 1995.
 GSM-R standards were developed based on GSM R99 technology and
included all railways specific requirements and an allowance of a
specific additional frequency range
 Enhanced Location Dependent Addressing
(eLDA)
 Enhanced Railway Emergency Call (eREC) l Applications
 Short Message Service to Functional Number
 Functional Numbering Railway functional

 Location Dependent Addressing Requirements
 High speed – up to 500 km/h (EIRENE)
 Voice Group Call Service (VGCS)

 Voice Broadcast Service (VBS) GSM enhancements
 Enhanced Multi Level Precedence and Pre- for railways ( ETSI EN301515) )
emption (eMLPP)
 All functionalities available for GSM-R including
 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
 Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
Standard GSM functionality

PMR functionalities of GSM-R
GSM-R is a worldwide standard, developed within the

frame of the GSM/3GPP standards to include Rail &
Transport needs.
- It includes a dedicated radio spectrum for exclusive
rail use, all over Europe (876-880 / 921-925 MHz) with
extension possible within (873-915 / 918-960 MHz) for
worldwide application.
- It includes features specific for Railways operations .
- It is the bearer for ETCS and Track-to-Train radio .
- It allows for evolution towards new features such as
Packet Switching GPRS/EGPRS and Release 4
architecture.

Standardization is a continuous process
GPRS
3GPP/UMTS/LTE
GSM EGPRS
Phase 2 Rel '99 Rel-4 Rel-N Rel-12
1992 1997 2000 2001 2002 2012

GSM-R
current status

5
From an European standard
GSM-R is in operation in most of the European

Countries and ETCS L2 roll out is based on GSM-R.
 70,000 km of track are in GSM-R operation just in
Europe and 84,000 km more are planned to be
covered in addition*
 GSM-R is expanding worldwide: 138,000 km are
planned to be covered outside Europe. **
*) source: UIC e-News 311

**) source: Kapsch CarrierCom, Nokia Siemens Networks - GSM-R in operation

To a worldwide standard
The European experience is now a blueprint for a global deployment

 India
 Turkey
 Saudi//UAE/Qatar/Oman
 Algeria/Libya/Morocco/Tunisia
 South Africa
 Australia
 China
 Russia/Turkmenistan
Contracts awarded*
1998-2013
* Source UIC and GSM-R IG

GSM-R an
evolving
system

8
From the European Legislation perspective
MoU ERTMS– A Memorandum of Understanding ERTMS was

signed between the European Commission, European Railway
Agency and the Rail Sector Organisations :
 The Parties note the commitment of the GSM-R Industry
Group members to the long-term support of GSM-R
technology, at least until 2025. Nevertheless
telecommunications systems usually have a much shorter
life cycle than signalling systems. For this reason, it should
be possible to replace the 'telecommunications part of on-
board equipment without this having an impact on the
'safety critical signalling path.
 Today ETCS applications work with GSM-R circuit-
switched services. It does seem possible, however, to use
packet-switch systems (e.g. GPRS) and, in the longer term,
other IP-based standards, without impacting on the ETCS
specifications.

9
Step 1: Needs analysis
Narrow Band  Red – Railway

& Mission Network supported
Critical applications
Applications
Critically for Railway Operations
Train Radio  Blue – Potential

ETCS
Parallel networks
supported applications
Operation and
Maintenance
Teams
Broadband
Train
Maintenance Driver Look Ahead CCTV
crew
applications Real time passenger video information
Mail, WEB for passengers
Bandwidth
Step 2: NSS and FTS migration
ETSI TS 103 066 V1.1.2 (2012-04) ETSI TS 103 147 V1.1.1 (2013-06)
Technical Specification
Technical Specification
Railway Telecommunications (RT);

Railway Telecommunications (RT); GSM-R Core Network Redundancy
Rel-4 Core Network requirements for GSM-R
From FTS
Foreign R99
Network To R4
BICN ETSI TS 103 389 V1.1.1 (2011-09)
 NSS: Technical Specification
 From R99 to BICN R4 Core Growing,

BSS Railway Telecommunications (RT);
Global System for Mobile communications (GSM);
Network architecture and PS Usage of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) on the

Network Switching Subsystem (NSS) to Fixed Terminal
Subsystem (FTS) interface for GSM Operation on Railways improved
Roaming Exchange applications
 NSS to FTS: BSC
 SIP introduction at Interface,
VRS with IP interface.
 Transmission network
 IP Guideline
 IP QoS BTS
 GPRS/EGPRS for ETCS
Step 3: BSS & Terminals migration
FTS
Foreign From R99
Network To R4+
features
 NSS: From R4 to R4+ Core

Network architecture and features
 NSS to FTS: SIP phase 2 BSS
introduction at Interface
 Transmission network : IP
introduction within distribution BSC
network
 IP BSS:
 “Full IP end to end interface over
the Abis interface of BSS”
 Terminals
 Software Defined Radio
BTS
 VoIP over the Air interface

Conclusion
 The analysis showed that communication technology

evolution is not complete, but the IP based technology is
the stable platform.
 The worldwide evolution shows that 3GPP UMTS is still a
long term technology for voice and preserves more than
80% of railways assets while evolving toward IP.
 The roadmap for evolution should be « railways needs
evolution » based, not « technology only » driven.
 GSMR-IP is today offering a Global answer to Users needs,
allows from the Shelves delivery, ensures Multi-supplier
environment, is Reliable, prepared for Innovation and
answers Promises.

rsarfati@systra.com
www.systra.com
UIC ERTMS/GSM-R Operator’s Group
Chairman
European Telecommunications Standard
Institute Rail Telecoms Chairman
THANK YOU

GSM-R Implementation Status

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Implementation status :

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

 In Europe, existing standard technologies were considered for the new

 Functional Numbering Railway functional

 Voice Group Call Service (VGCS)

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

GSM-R is a worldwide standard, developed within the

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

1992 1997 2000 2001 2002 2012

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

GSM-R is in operation in most of the European

*) source: UIC e-News 311

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

The European experience is now a blueprint for a global deployment

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

MoU ERTMS– A Memorandum of Understanding ERTMS was

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

Narrow Band  Red – Railway

Train Radio  Blue – Potential

Railway Telecommunications (RT);

 NSS: Technical Specification

 From R99 to BICN R4 Core Growing,

Network architecture and PS Usage of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) on the

 NSS: From R4 to R4+ Core

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

 The analysis showed that communication technology

Robert Sarfati – UIC CCRCC Conference

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