Study on feasibility of SATCOM for railway communication

Final Report
Other responses (not shown in the figure) included:
Improved availability (not necessarily higher data rates)
Electronically steerable flat-panel antennas
A participant elaborated on the fact that HTS is a key enabler behind great innovation on the ground,
in particular enabling the substantial improvements to antenna profile and performance.
Finally, several participants indicated that LEO/MEO orbits are indeed a trend, albeit a longer-term
one.
Handheld support
Lower spectrum bands (S, L and VHF)
Lower satellite orbits (LEO/MEO)
HTS (higher spectrum bands, e.g. Ka and multi-beam)
Improved antenna profile and performance
Higher data rates
Waveform with spreading capabilities
Adoption of a commercial communications standard
Adoption of a proprietary communications protocol
SOTM main trends
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Figure 46: SOTM main trends
When asked about the main technological challenges for SATCOM in safety applications, multiple
responses are given (see Figure 47), with the highest-ranked challenge being antenna dimensions, or
form factor. Other responses included:
Throughput and latency performances
Reliability
Competitiveness (with respect to ground-based solutions)
Coordination of beam switching in large, complex global networks with multiple overlapping
beams
Doc.Nº: SRAIL-FNR-010-IND
Edit./Rev.: 1/1
Date: 16/02/2017
Page 109 of 285