System-Level Evaluation of Next-Generation Radio Communication System for Train Operation Services

GSM-R, the radio communication system based on GSM and enhanced to support services required for train operation has been adopted in most of the European countries on main lines. In order to fulfill railway operators' requirements evolving toward a larger use of the radio communication system with new applications, like closed-circuit television, and to overcome the upcoming GSM obsolescence, the design of the next radio communication system for train-to-ground communications has started in Europe. In this context, the X2Rail-1 project evaluates the system throughput of the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile cellular system in a railway environment for both train-to-ground and ground-to-train links. Realistic system-level evaluation results taking into account typical railway deployment scenarios, including train density and speed, wayside base station deployment, propagation model, inter-cell interference and its mitigation are presented in this paper.