Study on feasibility of SATCOM for railway communication

Final Report
Unlike GSM-R, satellite systems do not need a special deployment for each railway line (except for
terrestrial supports for those areas without satellite coverage like tunnels or stations). This is an
attractive SATCOM feature, since:
Costs of deployment and maintenance associated with the use of a terrestrial system in large
areas do not exist with SATCOM solutions, and
SATCOM solutions are able to cover a huge area and do not require a new deployment for
each new line.
2.3 SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to provide a detailed and justified answer to the questions
requested by the Agency in the ToR [RD-01]. These questions are mainly related to the feasibility of
the SATCOM technology to support the IP based ETCS data and voice applications in the railway
domain. However, it is not only focused on the technical aspects but also in their economic impact
from cost savings and value added services point of view.
Currently, in the railway domain, one of the most important challenges is to separate the applications
from the bearer technology (at present GSM-R). This is crucial in order to derive the adequate
application requirements that allow defining those technologies able to meet the stringent
requirements requested by the so-called safety critical railway applications.
This project aims to identify which are the most relevant technical parameters and criteria in the
railway communication system that can drive the selection of the best SATCOM candidate. In addition,
criteria are defined in such a way that allows performing qualitative analysis to check their feasibility.
Further, the economic viability of the proposed solutions is analysed to provide non-technical aspects
that contribute to the decision regarding the feasibility of the satellite technology for railway
communications.
Below are presented the questions requested by the Agency:
1) Can unmodified (off the shelf) satcom services and products deliver solutions
which can support
a. voice and data applications for the following categories:
i. as bearer for IP based ETCS level 2/3 data application
ii. as bearer for IP based voice applications
2) When not or only partially: can modified off the shelf services and products deliver
solutions for the above mentioned categories?
3) On what geographical part of the European railway network could a satcom
solution be used successfully?
4) What are the conditions to create and implement suitable solutions?
5) What could be the economic impact (cost savings) of satcom solutions compared
with full terrestrial solutions?
Doc.Nº: SRAIL-FNR-010-IND
Edit./Rev.: 1/1
Date: 16/02/2017
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