Introduction
Interoperability of railways rolling stock and infrastructure is essential for the further improvement of European rail transport operation. Harmonization of telecommunications in railway operation, with the goal of full interoperability, is a key element and a harmonized interoperable system in Europe is expected to open the way to global harmonization.
At the end of the 1990s, the European authorities have selected GSM-R as the radio transmission technology. This is reflected in the technical specification for interoperability (TSI) relating to the control-command and signalling subsystems (CCS) of the trans-European rail system, with standardization being a key to achieving a harmonized solution.
GSM-R is part of the ETSI/3GPP GSM specifications and applications have specific Quality of Service requirements for a harmonized railway operation. In addition, it operates in the ER-GSM band.
European railways
Within Europe, GSM-R is combined with the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to form the basis for an Intelligent Transport System that gives railways the means to improve the efficiency of rail operations and offer new services to users.
ERTMS, the European Rail Traffic Management System, is the rail management system which combines the European Train Control System (ETCS) with GSM-R. As a unique European train control system, ERTMS is designed to gradually replace the existing incompatible systems throughout Europe. This should bring considerable benefits to the railway sector as it allows seamless international freight and passenger transport. Moreover, ERTMS as train control system brings significant advantages in terms of maintenance costs savings, safety, reliability, punctuality and traffic capacity.
Beyond Europe
The GSM-R system continued to spread to even wider geographical areas. Beyond all European countries, it was adopted, among other places, in Saudi Arabia and Israel in the Middle East. In the Far East it has extended into India, China and Australia, where networks are implemented. This is also the case for South Africa as well as all North Africa countries. Overall, the GSM-R system has been deployed on more than 150,000 km of track in Europe and 230,000 km worldwide.
Beyond GSM-R: the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS)
UNITEL, the Rail Industry Group has indicated that support of GSM-R products and services are guaranteed at least until 2030 on a general basis and beyond 2030 on a per contract basis. Based upon this information, the railway sector had to mitigate the risk of non-availability of GSM-R as radio system for train operation after this date.
Replacement of GSM-R equipment (on-board and trackside) by new equipment offering new services (which cannot be provided by GPRS) while maintaining interoperability has to be considered in a global timeline. For this reason, the evolution of the GSM-R was discussed and UIC (International Union of Railways) commenced discussions on the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) from 2013 onwards. Under supervision by the European Union Agency for Railways and with support of the rail sector representative organizations, the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) was referred to in the CCS-TSI of 2023.
In 2015, ETSI’s Technical Committee for Rail Telecommunications (TC RT), home of the GSM-R standard, started to work on the Next Generation Radio for Rail while 3GPP which develops the standards for mobile communications systems, has created a study item on FRMCS. The work is currently ongoing and a set of 8 ETSI Technical Specifications are now being developed in TC RT under a European Union Standardization Request.
Beyond the technology (or technologies) of choice, one of the main challenges in the future radio communication system for railway was the spectrum and a great achievement was reached with the adoption in EU of the COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION (EU) 2021/1730 of 28 September 2021 on the harmonised use of the paired frequency bands 874,4 to 880,0 MHz and 919,4 to 925,0 MHz and of the unpaired frequency band 1 900 to 1 910 MHz for Railway Mobile Radio.
Apart from the spectrum availability at European level which was achieved, the challenge is related to the required additional investment in 5G based FRMCS of potentially new radio sites rollout with respect to the installed base of GSM-R radio sites whose rollout in Europe is still ongoing.
Our Role & Activities
The standardization work is carried out by a dedicated ETSI Technical Committee (TC), Rail Telecommunications (RT).
Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS)
FRMCS normative work in response to the FRMCS Standardisation Request (M/603) includes:
- the FRMCS System Architecture (TS 103 764)
- the FRMCS building blocks and functions (TS 103 765 -1 to -5)
- the FRMCS /GSM-R interworking (TS 103 792)
- the FRMCS radio characteristics (TS 103 793)
A first set of these Technical Specifications is expected to be finalized by the beginning of 2025. These standardisation activities are coordinated with the International Union of Railways (UIC) as well as with 3GPP.
TC RT also works in cooperation with TC ITS for the investigation of the shared usage of 5GHz frequency band (5 875 to 5 925 MHz) for Urban Rail and ITS. This work takes place in a dedicated task force between TC RT and TC ITS (JTFIR).
GSM-R
ETSI's standardization activities for GSM-R within TC RT focuses on the application of GSM for railway telecommunications. This included its improvement with additional features and services sought by the railways including the usage of GPRS/EGPRS for ETCS operation and IP-based protocols such as SIP. TC RT is the basis for proposal of revision needed to operate the rail system while ensuring complete interoperability.
ETSI TC RT is represented in JPC-Rail (Sector Forum Rail) as well as EUAR TWG STA (European Union Agency for Rail Topical Working Group on Standardisation) coordination groups.
Standards
A full list of related standards in the public domain is accessible via the RT committee page.