Study of the possibility of using transmission in the lte system on a selected railway line for the purpose of running railway traffic

Abstract

The railway and the Rail Traffic Control Systems installed on it in Poland have recently experienced rapid technological development. This is undoubtedly due to the funds that Poland receives from the European Union for the modernization of railway infrastructure. The development of modern railway infrastructure means not only stations, modern rolling stock, but also safe and reliable train control systems based on the latest telecommunications and information technologies. For a longer time, radio communication based on the GSM-R (GSM for Railways) standard is being introduced on PKP. For this purpose, dedicated infrastructure is being built in order to use this technology for railway traffic. This is associated with huge investment costs. Since the beginning of its existence, research has been conducted worldwide on the use of LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology for conducting railway traffic. For economic and technological reasons, it is necessary to study other possibilities of using modern telecommunications infrastructure not yet dedicated to railway tasks in these open networks. The article will present research on the use of open radio communication network based on LTE standard for rail traffic and passenger comfort. It will discuss the research method and selected results of measurements made on railway line no. 4. The choice of this railway line was dictated by two factors. The first one resulted from the maximum train speed, the second one is the variety of rolling stock used on this line (compartmental and non-compartmental wagons). The part of research concerning collection of measurement material was performed within the framework of completed research work PBS3/A6/29/2015. As a result of conducted in-depth literature analysis as well as performed measurements and calculations, it allowed to develop a model and software for simulating system operation in real conditions. This system allows to send railway telegrams on appropriate safety level defined in standardization documents. The research proved the possibility of using an open system in the LTE standard for the transmission of signals for railway traffic control and passengers while maintaining an appropriate level of safety. The only limitations which were indicated by the tests are improper radio interface coverage of railway lines. Appropriate planning of radio coverage of railway areas by radio communication operators (so far ignored) with proper cooperation of infrastructure manager can lead to launching efficient communication system without necessity to build specialized infrastructure for railway.