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High-Speed Railway Communications: From GSM-R to LTE-R

Article  in  IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine · September 2016

DOI: 10.1109/MVT.2016.2564446

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 Ruisi He, Bo Ai,
Gongpu Wang, Ke Guan,
Zhangdui Zhong,
Andreas F. Molisch,
Cesar Briso-Rodriguez,
and Claude Oestges

H
igh-speed railways (HSRs)
improve the quality of rail
services, yield greater cus-
tomer satisfaction, and help
to create socioeconomically bal-
anced societies [1]. This highly effi-
cient transport mode creates
significant challenges in terms of
investment, technology, industry,
and environment. To handle
increasing traffic, ensure passen-
ger safety, and provide real-time
multimedia information, a new
communication system for HSR is
required. In the last decade,
public networks have been
evolving from voice-centric sec-
ond-generation systems, e.g.,
z

Global System for Mobile Com-

©istockphoto.com/Enzoj

munications (GSM) with limited

capabilities, to fourth-genera-
tion (4G) broad-band systems
that offer higher data rates,

High-Speed Railway
Communications
From GSM-R to LTE-R
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MVT.2016.2564446
Date of publication: 29 August 2016

september 2016 | IEEE vehicular technology magazine 1556-6072/16©2016ieee ||| 49

e.g., long-term ­evolution (LTE). It is thus relevant for HSR Union of Railways or Union Internationale des Chemins de
to replace the current GSM-railway (GSM-R) technology Fer (UIC), known as the Future Railway Mobile Communi-
with the next-generation railway-dedicated communica- cation System (FRMCS), has started to assess and shape
tion system providing improved capacity and capability. the future of HSR mobile communications and to identify
With the rapid development of HSRs, a reliable broad- suitable candidate technologies to use once the currently
band communications system is essential for different used GSM-R has become obsolete. HSR applications have
HSR components, such as train control and safety-related strict requirements for quality-of-service (QoS) measures,
communications. Since 2014, a project of the International such as data rate, transmission delay, and bit error rate
(BER). Due to these factors as well as
a desire to use mature and low-cost
technology, HSR communications
2008

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2022

2025
generally use off-the-shelf technolo-
gies and add applications to meet
Requirement Definition specific services and demands. GSM-
Progress
Determination of Wireless Access in Europe R [2] is a successful example, based
Determination of Communication Network Structure on the GSM standard and used on
LTE-R Operation Requirements over 70,000 km of railway lines (in-
LTE-R Functional Requirements cluding over 22,000 km of HSR lines)
LTE-R Frequency Application all over the world [3].
UIC + 3GPP Standardization The GSM communications sys-
Trial Test and Validation tems are being decommissioned as
Deployment the public communication market is
evolving toward the Third Generation
Analysis of LTE-R Services
Progress Partnership Project (3GPP) LTE [4].
Establishment of LTE-R Lab in China As a consequence, GSM-R also has a
LTE-R Frequency Application foreseeable end to its lifetime. A new
LTE-R System Test and Simulation system is thus required to fulfill HSR
operational needs, with the capability
LTE-R Technical Standard
Formulation in China of being consistent with LTE, offering
First LTE-R new services but still coexisting with
Network in China GSM-R for a long period of time. The
Deployment selection of a suitable wireless com-
(a) munication system for HSRs needs to
consider such issues as performance,
876 880 918 921 925 service attributes, frequency band,
­
873 MHz 960 MHz and industrial support. Compared
Uplink Downlink E-GSM-R
with third-generation (3G) s­ystems,
GSM-R
GSM-R 4G LTE has a simple flat architecture,
Public Network
high data rate, and low latency, mak-
400 MHz
700 MHz
ing it an acknowledged acceptable
790–960 MHz
1.7–2.2 GHz 1.8 GHz bearer for real-time HSR applications.
450–470 MHz 2.5–2.7 GHz 2.5–2.6 GHz Fifth-generation (5G) systems, al-
though currently discussed in 3GPP,
LTE-R will be available only after 2020 and,
China Europe Korea therefore, are not suitable for the HSR
time frame [5]. In view of the perfor-
450.5

454.1

457.2

459.3

460.5

464.1

467.2

468.7
469.3

mance and level of maturity of LTE,

452

462

458.7
LTE-railway (LTE-R) will likely be the
450 MHz 470 MHz next generation of HSR communica-
Rural Analog Access
Railway
tion systems [6], [7], and the future
450–470 MHz vision for HSR wireless technologies
in China Public Security
Shared will thus rely on it.
(b) A schedule of standardization and
establishment of LTE-R is shown
Figure 1  (a) The time frame of LTE-R in Europe and China. (b) The allocation of frequency bands. in Figure 1(a). The UIC is ­expected to

50 ||| IEEE vehicular technology magazine | september 2016

­ omplete operation and functional requirements de-
c
termination by 2017. In China, the development of LTE-R also With the rapid development of HSRs,
has been widely discussed and scheduled by the govern- a reliable, broad-band communications
ment. The first LTE-R network of China is scheduled for system is essential for different HSR
2020; a time frame of LTE-R in China is presented in Figure 1(a). components, such as train control
and safety-related communications.
GSM-R

GSM-R System Description system is used mainly for data transmissions. The GSM-R
GSM-R is essentially the same system as the GSM but is very relevant to ETCS-2 and ETCS-3, where the train
with railway-specific functionalities. It uses a specific fre- travels at a speed up to 350 km/h, and it is thus necessary
quency band around 800/900 MHz, as illustrated in Fig- to guarantee a continuous supervision of train position
ure 1(b) [8]. In addition, the frequency bands 873–876 MHz and speed. When the call is lost, the train has to automati-
(uplink) and 918–921 MHz (downlink) are used as exten- cally reduce the speed to 300 km/h (ETCS-1) or lower. The
sion bands for GSM-R on a national basis, under the most typical HSR-specific services offered by GSM-R are
name Extended GSM-R (E-GSM-R). as follows [9].
GSM-R is typically implemented using dedicated 1) Voice group call service (VGCS): VGCS conducts
base stations (BSs) close to the rail track. The distance group calls between trains and BSs or conducts
between two neighboring BSs is 7–15 km; in China, it is group calls between trackside workers, station staff,
3–5 km because redundancy coverage is used to ensure and similar groups.
higher availability and reliability. GSM-R has to fulfill 2) Voice broadcast service (VBS): The BS broadcasts mes-
tight availability and performance requirements of the sages to certain groups of trains, or trains broadcast
HSR radio services. Table 1 summarizes some key param- messages to BSs and other trains in a defined area. Com-
eters of GSM-R systems. pared to VGCS, only the initiator of the call can speak in
VBS, and the others who join the call can only be listen-
GSM-R Services ers. VBS is mainly used to broadcast recorded messages
The GSM-R network serves as a data carrier for the Euro- or to make announcements in the operation of HSR.
pean Train Control System (ETCS), which is the signaling 3) Enhanced multilevel precedence and preemption
system used for railway control. The ETCS has three levels (eMLPP): eMLPP defines the user’s priority and is used
of operation and uses the GSM-R radio network to send to achieve high performance for emergency group calls.
and receive information from trains. On the first level, 4) Shunting mode: Shunting mode provides an effective
ETCS-1, the GSM-R is used only for voice communications. means of communication to a group of personnel who
On the other two levels, ETCS-2 and ETCS-3, the GSM-R are involved with a shunting operation, which

Table 1  System parameters of GSM-R, LTE, and LTE-R.

Parameter GSM-R LTE LTE-R
Frequency Uplink: 876–880 MHz; 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.6 GHz 450 MHz, 800 MHz, 1.4 GHz,
downlink: 921–925 MHz 1.8 GHz
Bandwidth 0.2 MHz 1.4–20 MHz 1.4-20 MHz
Modulation GMSK QPSK/M-QAM/OFDM QPSK/16-QAM
Cell range 8 km 1–5 km 4–12 km
Cell configuration Single sector Multisector Single sector
Peak data rate, downlink/uplink 172/172 Kbps 100/50 Mbps 50/10 Mbps
Peak spectral e
­ fficiency 0.33 bps/Hz 16.32 bps/Hz 2.55 bps/Hz
Data transmission Requires voice call connection Packet switching Packet switching (UDP data)
Packet retransmission No (serial data) Yes (IP packets) Reduced (UDP ­packets)
MIMO No 2 x 2, 4 x 4 2x2
Mobility Max. 500 km/h Max. 350 km/h Max. 500 km/h
Handover success rate ≥ 99.5% ≥ 99.5% ≥ 99.9%
Handover procedure Hard Hard/soft Soft: no data loss
All IP (native) No Yes Yes

september 2016 | IEEE vehicular technology magazine ||| 51

 delay is in the range of 400 ms, which is too high to
Although the popularity of GSM-R is still support any real-time application and emergency com-
growing, increasing interference from munication [10]. The future services of HSRs such as
public networks is hampering the use of real-time monitoring require a wide-band system to
GSM-R while the assigned radio have larger data rate and short delay.
frequencies limit its capacity. Due to the above limitations, GSM-R must eventually
evolve to eliminate revealed shortcomings [11]. LTE-R,
which could be based on the LTE standard, is a likely
r­ egulates and controls user access to shunting commu- candidate to replace GSM-R in the future for the follow-
nications (a link assurance signal used to give reassur- ing reasons.
ance to the train driver). 1) LTE has many advantages over GSM in terms of capac-
5) Functional addressing: A train can be addressed by a ity and capabilities.
number identifying the function for which it is being 2) As a fully packet-switched-based network, LTE is bet-
used, rather than a more permanent subscriber number. ter suited for data communications.
6) Location-dependent addressing: Calls from a train to 3) LTE offers a more efficient network architecture and
certain functions can be addressed based on the loca- thus has a reduced packet delay, which is one of the
tion of the train as the train moves through different crucial requirements for providing ETCS messages.
areas of BSs. 4) LTE has a high throughput radio access, as it consists of
a number of improvements that increase spectral effi-
GSM-R Limitations ciency, such as advanced multiplexing and modulation.
Although the popularity of GSM-R is still growing, 5) LTE is also a well-established and off-the-shelf system
increasing interference from public networks is hamper- and provides standardized interworking mechanisms
ing the use of GSM-R, while the as­­signed radio frequen- with GSM.
cies limit its capacity. Several limitations are summarized
in the following. LTE-R
1) Interference: The interference between GSM-R and
other public networks increases because both railway LTE-R System Description
and public operators want to have good coverage To provide improved and more efficient transmission for
along the rail tracks. Instead of cooperating in network HSR communications, it is vital to consider frequency
planning, railway and public operators fight for the and spectrum usage for LTE-R. HSRs are important stra-
coverage. The interference could result in severe tegic infrastructure, and, in some countries, this argu-
impairment of voice and data communications as well ment is being leveraged to convince governments that
as network loss over several hundred meters of track. large spectrum chunks need to be allocated specifically
Theoretically, such interference can be avoided if pub- for it. Some industry bodies, including the European
lic operators do not use frequency bands adjacent to Railway Agency (ERA), China Railway, and UIC, are work-
those of GSM-R for the areas close to rail tracks; how- ing to secure spectrum allocation for HSR use. Currently,
ever, this is not well implemented in practice. In the most LTE systems work at the bands above 1 GHz, such
future, interference may increase owing to the growth as 1.8, 2.1, 2.3, and 2.6 GHz, although 700–900-MHz
of GSM-R network deployment and the potential bands are also used in some countries. Large bandwidth
growth of public networks. is available in the upper bands, giving a higher data rate,
2) Capacity: The 4-MHz bandwidth of GSM-R can support whereas lower frequency bands offer longer distance
19 channels of 200-KHz width. This is sufficient for coverage. Figure 1(b) summarizes the possible frequen-
voice communication, as voice calls are limited in time cy bands for LTE-R in China, Europe, and Korea. As a
and do not occupy resources continuously. However, high-frequency band has larger propagation loss and
the current capacity turns out to be insufficient for the more severe fading, the radius of an LTE-R cell would be
next-generation railway system, where each train needs <2 km [due to the strict requirement of signal-to-noise
to establish a continuous data connection with a radio ratio (SNR) and BER in HSR], leading to frequent hando-
block center (RBC), and each RBC connection needs to vers and a requirement of substantial investment for
constantly occupy one time slot. The radio capacity higher BS density. Therefore, the low-frequency bands,
can be increased by using more spectrum resources. such as 450–470 MHz, 800 MHz, and 1.4 GHz, have been
3) Capability: As a narrow-band system, GSM-R can- widely considered. The 450–470-MHz band is already
not provide advanced services and adapt to new well adopted by the railway industry; therefore, dedicat-
­requirements. The maximum transmission rate of ed bandwidth for professional use can still be allocated
GSM-R per connection is 9.6 kb/s, which is sufficient from local regulators. Furthermore, the carrier aggrega-
only for applications with low demands; message tion capability of LTE will permit the use of different

52 ||| IEEE vehicular technology magazine | september 2016

bands to overcome problems of capacity. Figure 1(b) is ­preferred, and the packet number of retransmission
presents the detailed frequency allocation of 450 – must be reduced as much as possible.
470  MHz in China [12], and it is feasible to allocate
enough bandwidth for LTE-R within this band. In LTE-R Services
Europe, the FRMCS of UIC would like to build on the cur- HSR communications intend to use a well-established/
rent GSM-R investment by reusing the existing mast off-the-shelf system, where some specific needs should
sites, which could save as much as 80–90% of the cost of be defined at the service level. As suggested by the
a network. Railways are also concerned about continu- E-Train project [6], LTE-R should provide a series of ser-
ing to make use of their GSM-R masts, and, therefore, a vices to improve security, QoS, and efficiency. Compared
spectrum allocation under 1 GHz is more cost effective with the traditional services of GSM-R, some features of
in Europe. However, the selection of frequency band LTE-R are described.
depends on government policy and differs by country. 1) Information transmission of control systems: To enable
Standard LTE includes a core network of evolved compatibility with the ETCS-3 or the Chinese Train
packet core (EPC) and a radio access network of Evolved Control System Level 4 (CTCS-4), LTE-R provides
Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). ­real-time information transmission of control informa-
The Internet protocol (IP)-based EPC supports seamless tion via wireless communications with a <50-ms delay.
handovers for both voice and data to cell towers, and each While the location information of the train is detected
E-UTRAN cell will support high data and voice capacity by by a track circuit in ETCS-2/CTCS-3, in ETCS-3/CTCS-4
high-speed packet access (HSPA). As a candidate for the and LTE-R, the location information of the train is
next-generation communication system of HSR, LTE-R in- detected by RBC and onboard radio equipment. This
herits all the important features of LTE and provides an ex- improves the accuracy of train tracking and the effi-
tra radio access system to exchange wireless signals with ciency of train dispatchment. LTE-R also can be used
onboard units (OBUs) and to match HSR-specific needs. to provide information transmission for future auto-
The future architecture of LTE-R according to [4] is pre- matic driving systems.
sented in Figure 2, and it shows that the core network of 2) Real-time monitoring: LTE-R provides video monitoring
LTE-R is backward compatible with GSM-R. of front-rail track, cabin, and car connector conditions;
Compared with the public LTE networks, LTE-R has real-time information monitoring of the rail track condi-
many differences, such as architecture, system param- tions (e.g., temperature and flaw detection); video
eters, network layout, services, and QoS. The preferred monitoring of railway infrastructures (e.g., bridges and
parameters of LTE-R are summarized in Table 1, based tunnels) to avoid natural disasters; and video monitor-
on the future QoS requirements of HSR communica- ing of cross tracks to detect freezing at low tempera-
tions. Note that LTE-R will be configured for reliability tures. The monitoring information will be shared with
more than capacity. The network must be able to oper- both the control center and the high-speed train in real
ate at 500 km/h in complex railway environments. There- time, with a <300-ms delay. Although some of the afore-
fore, quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation mentioned surveillance can be conducted by wired

GSM–R
BS BSC SGSN

Uu
EPC
HSS
S3
S 6a
OBU eNodeB S 1–MME S4
Receiver
PCRF IP
Uu E-UTRAN MME
S 1–U S 11 Gx Services
eNodeB
S5 S Gi
Serving PDN
eNodeB Gateway Gateway

Figure 2 The LTE-R architecture for HSR communication. BSC: BS controller; HSS: home subscriber server; MME: mobility manage­ment entity;
PCRF: policy and charging rules function; PDN: packet data network; SGSN: serving general packet radio service (GPRS) support node.

september 2016 | IEEE vehicular technology magazine ||| 53

 communications, the wireless-based LTE-R system is ble to remake trackside infrastructure from switches to
more cost effective for deployments and maintenance. power lines, which could automate many of the routine
3) Train multimedia dispatching: LTE-R provides full dis- safety checks and reduce the costs of maintenance.
patching information (including text, data, voice, imag- In addition to the features listed previously, some other
es, video, etc.) of drivers and yards to the dispatcher services of LTE-R should be included, such as dynamic
and improves dispatching efficiency. It supports rich seat reservation, mobile e-ticketing, and wireless interac-
functionalities, such as voice trunking, dynamic group- tion of passenger information. Figure 3 summarizes the fu-
ing, temporary group call, short messaging, and multi- ture possible services provided by LTE-R, which is based
media messaging. on the technical reports of the UIC, China Railway, and
4) Railway emergency communications: When natural ERA. It is noteworthy that broad-band wireless ­access for
disasters, accidents, or other emergencies occur, estab- passengers inside high-speed trains is not provided by
lishment of immediate communications between acci- LTE-R because of its limited bandwidth. Some candidates
dent site and rescue center is required to provide voice, for broad-band wireless access for train passengers have
video, data, and image transmissions. Railway emergen- been discussed, such as Wi-Fi, ­Worldwide Interoperability
cy communication systems use the railway private net- for Micro­wave Access (WiMAX), 3G/4G/5G, satellite com-
work to ensure rapid deployment and faster response munications, and radio-over-fiber (RoF) technology [13].
(with a <100-ms delay) compared with GSM-R.
5) Railway Internet of Things (IoT): LTE-R provides the rail- LTE-R Challenges
way IoT services, such as real-time query and tracking There are several challenges associated with LTE-R.
of trains and goods. It helps to enhance transport effi- 1) HSR-specific scenarios: In the LTE standard of [14], a
ciency and extend service ranges. Moreover, railway channel model for HSR is presented that only includes
IoT could also improve train safety. Most of today’s two scenarios, open space and tunnel, and uses a non-
trains rely on trackside switches located in remote fading channel model in both scenarios. However, as
areas. With the IoT and remote monitoring, it is possi- indicated by [15], the strict demands (high velocity,

Railway Emergency Mobile

Communications E-Ticketing

Wireless Interaction of Railway IoT

Passenger Information

Real-Time
LTE-R Remote
Monitoring

In-Station
Communications Train Multimedia
Dispatching

Infrastructure GSM-R
Monitoring
Train Control

Wi-Fi WiMAX

3G/4G/5G

Satellite In-Carriage
Wireless Access RoF

Figure 3 The LTE-R services.

54 ||| IEEE vehicular technology magazine | september 2016

 rail track flatness, etc.) of HSRs lead to many HSR-spe- path length between two MPCs is 1.4 km. Because rail-
cific environments, such as viaducts, cuttings, and way communications aim to provide linear coverage,
tunnels. The propagation characteristics in those sce- directional BS antennas with main lobes along the rail
narios are distinct from traditional cellular communi- track are widely used, so transmit power is focused on
cations and may significantly impact the system the narrow-strip-shaped regions. Intuitively, we would
performances of GSM-R and LTE-R. In the past, some anticipate that the short CP scheme is sufficient for
measurements were conducted to characterize the LTE-R. This is especially true because high-speed trains
HSR channels for GSM-R band, and a scenario-based mostly travel in (semi)rural/suburban environments,
path loss and shadow fading model has been pro- where there are few scatterers. However, in some spe-
posed in [16] and [17] for GSM-R at 930 MHz. However, cial environments with rich multiple reflections, such as
this work is still ongoing, and many scientific issues cuttings, a large delay spread is expected (note that a
are yet to be solved at LTE-R band, e.g., propagation measurement-based validation is required), and the long
loss, geometry distribution of multipath components CP scheme should be used. Another example for large
(MPCs), and two-dimensional/three-dimensional angu- delay spread occurs in the presence of mountains along
lar estimation in those HSR-specific environments. It is the rail track [19], especially before and after the train
necessary to develop a series of channel models for enters and leaves tunnels. More measurements are
the link budget and network design of LTE-R, and required to address the behaviors of delay spread in
extensive channel measurements are needed. HSR environments, and the CP needs to be adjusted to
2) High mobility: High-speed trains usually run at a speed the environment, just as with general LTE.
of 350 km/h, and LTE-R is designed to support 4) Linear coverage: In HSRs, linear coverage with direc-
500  km/h. The high velocity leads to a series of prob- tional antennas along the rail track is used, where the
lems. First, high velocity results in a nonstationary directional BS antennas orientate their main lobe
channel because, in a short time segment, the train along the rail track so that it is power efficient. The lin-
travels over a large region, where the MPCs change sig- ear coverage brings some benefits, e.g., with the
nificantly. Characterization of nonstationary is of spe- known location of a train, it is possible to design dis-
cial importance as it affects the BER in single-carrier tance/time-based beamforming algorithms with good
and multicarrier systems. Second, high velocity leads performance. However, it is noteworthy that the link
to a shift of the received frequency, called the Doppler budget and performance analysis of linear coverage
shift. For example, if the frequency is 2.6 GHz, the maxi- are different from the circular cell of cellular systems,
mum Doppler shift at 350 km/h is 843 Hz, whereas it is e.g., for the determination of the percentage of cover-
only 24 Hz for a pedestrian mobile speed of 10 km/h. age area. It is well known that, due to the effect of
The large Doppler shift leads to phase shift of the signal shadow fading, some locations within the coverage
and can impair the reception of angle-modulated sig- area will have a received signal below a particular
nals. However, because the high-speed train mostly threshold. Computing how the boundary coverage
moves along a scheduled line with a known speed, it is relates to the overall percentage of coverage area is
possible to track and compensate for the Doppler shift very useful for link budget and network planning. In
by using the real-time recorded information of speed Figure 4, we compare the determination of percentage
and position. Third, a large Doppler spread is expected
in HSR environments owing to the high velocity. For
LTE-R (broad-band system), Doppler spread typically 1
leads to loss of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio 0.9 450 MHz
Percentage of Coverage Area

and can hamper carrier recovery and synchronization. 0.8

Doppler spread is also of particular concern for orthog-
0.7
onal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems,
0.6 1.8 GHz
because it can corrupt the orthogonality of the OFDM
subcarriers. Several approaches such as frequency- 0.5
domain equalization and the intercarrier interference 0.4
self-cancellation scheme should be considered [18]. 0.3
3) Delay spread: Delay dispersion leads to a loss of orthog- Circular Cell
0.2 Linear Cell
onality between the OFDM subcarriers, and a special
type of guard interval, called the cyclic prefix (CP), 0.1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
should be employed. The delay dispersion determines Maximum Communication Distance (km)
the required length of CP. LTE supports both short
(4.76 ms) and long (16.67 ms) CP schemes. For the short Figure 4 The coverage area predictions for HSR linear cell and cellular
CP scheme, the corresponding maximum difference of circular cell.

september 2016 | IEEE vehicular technology magazine ||| 55

 of coverage area for linear and circular cells [20] using of the high-speed train significantly increases the nonsta-
the Hata-based link budget model, where we can see tionary aspect of channels. The large metal roof of the
that the linear coverage in HSRs generally has a high- train also increases reflections and scatterings near the
er percentage of coverage area. This should be care- transmitters/receivers and significantly affects the pat-
fully considered when designing LTE-R networks to tern of the transmitters/receivers antenna on the roof.
avoid an overdeployment of BSs. Moreover, propagation into the interior of the high-speed
5) Sparse multipaths: Sparse multipath channels repre- train leads to large penetration loss and reduces the SNR.
sent a sparse distribution of resolvable paths in the The coverage inside the train car could be improved with
angle-delay-Doppler domain. As in some open areas of moving relays, similar to femtocell access points.
HSRs, for example, viaducts and rural areas, there are
few scatterers. The linear coverage of HSR also reduc- GSM-R and LTE-R Coexistence
es the number of the scatterers that can be seen by As GSM-R support by suppliers is committed until at
transmitters/receivers. It is possible to have a sparse least 2028 and the UIC has been working on the succes-
multipath channel in those environments. However, sion of GSM-R since 2009, the coexistence between LTE-R
support for multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) and GSM-R is expected to last for a long time.
transmission will be an integral part of LTE-R. The 1) Business level: LTE-R needs to support the traditional
­performances of multiantenna solutions, such as spa- applications of GSM-R, such as group call service,
tial diversity and spatial multiplexing, depend on the broadcast service, and functional addressing. The
scattering richness in the environments. If the HSR multimedia broadcast multicast service of LTE, which
channel turns out to be sparse in those open areas, is designed to provide efficient delivery of broadcast
the clear line of sight and few scatterers lead to a and multicast services, would be a possible solution
strong correlation between the signals of two anten- to provide group call and broadcast services. The ses-
nas and reduce both diversity and spatial multiplexing sion initiation protocol (SIP) is a protocol for control-
gain. There is an indication that, in certain sparse ling multimedia communication sessions, and SIP
environments, a reconfigurable antenna array [21] can addressing could possibly be used to provide func-
improve system capacity. tional addressing in LTE-R.
6) Impact of train car: A high-speed train usually is over 2) Terminal level: The future HSR terminal should sup-
200  m long and made of metal. The static high-speed port both GSM-R and LTE-R. A multimode mobile ter-
train acts as a scatterer with strong reflection and minal with low complexity is a possible solution. Its
increases the delay spread, whereas the dynamic nature disadvantages, such as high power consumption and

AAA

AAA Server

All-IP Core
Network

SGSN/MME

SAEGW/GGSN

In-Carriage
WCDMA/ Wireless
RoF CDMA TETRA LTE LTE-R GSM-R GSM WLAN
HSPA Access

Figure 5 The future all-IP core network for HSR scenario. AAA: authentication, authorization, and accounting; CDMA: code division multiple
access; GGSN: gateway GPRS support node; MME: mobility management entity; SAEGW: system architecture evolution gateway; WCDMA:
wideband CDMA.

56 ||| IEEE vehicular technology magazine | september 2016

 large size, are not problems for the HSR communica-
tion system. LTE-R has the ability to fulfill railway
3) Access network level: Direct coexistence of an access requirements, and it will work as
network between GSM-R and LTE-R would be difficult corporative network for railway operation
because they use different access technologies. It is and services.
possible for the two networks to share sites at the first
step and use software-defined radio in the evolution
from GSM-R to LTE-R. Shaanxi Province of China Grant 2015JM6320, and Key Proj-
4) Core network level: As pointed out by the UIC E-Train ect from Beijing Science and Technology Commission
report [6], IP technology is the basic technology used Grant D151100000115004.
for converging network capability. The goal of the HSR
core network is to achieve an all-IP core network, Author Information
which is illustrated in Figure 5, where GSM-R, LTE-R, Ruisi He (ruisi.he@bjtu.edu.cn) received his B.E. and
wireless local area networks (WLANs), and Trans- Ph.D. degrees from Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU),
European Trunked Radio (TETRA) are all connected to China, in 2009 and 2015, respectively. He is an associate
the core network. The all-IP core network supports professor with the State Key Laboratory of Rail Traffic
end-to-end IP connectivity, distributed control and ser- Control and Safety, BJTU. His research interests include
vices, and gateways to legacy networks, where wire- radio propagation, long-term evolution-railways, and fifth-
less BSs can be connected to the all-IP core network generation communications. He serves as the Early
via IP. The mobile switching center, home location reg- Career Representative of Commission C, International
ister, and authentication center of GSM-R will be Union of Radio Science (URSI), and he received the URSI
replaced with the server and database of LTE-R, and Young Scientist Award in 2015.
the protocol of signaling networks will be replaced Bo Ai (boai@bjtu.edu.cn) received his M.S. and Ph.D.
with IP. The whole network will evolve from a vertical degrees from Xidian University, China, in 2002 and 2004,
tree structure to a distributed routing structure. respectively. He is a full professor and Ph.D. degree candi-
date advisor with the State Key Laboratory of Rail Traffic
Conclusions Control and Safety at Beijing Jiaotong University, China.
This article provides an overview of HSR-dedicated com- He is the deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of
munication systems. The current narrow-band GSM-R is Rail Traffic Control and Safety. He has authored/coau-
presented and its limitations are discussed. LTE-R, which thored six books and published over 230 academic
is a likely candidate for next-generation HSR communica- research papers. He holds 21 invention patents. He is an
tions, is introduced. LTE-R will be a special configuration Institution of Engineering and Technology fellow. He is an
of LTE. LTE-R has the ability to fulfill railway requirements, associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Consumer Elec-
and it will work as a cooperative network for railway oper- tronics and an editorial committee member of Wireless
ation and services. The possible system parameters and Personal Communications.
services of LTE-R are described, and some challenging Gongpu Wang (gpwang@bjtu.edu.cn) received his B.E.
issues are discussed. Finally, coexistence between GSM-R degree in communication engineering from Anhui Uni-
and LTE-R is addressed. LTE-R offers highly competitive versity, China, in 2001; his M.S. degree from the Beijing
performance and provides a good foundation for further University of Posts and Telecommunications, China, in
evolution. Despite this advantage, LTE-R has to be explicit- 2004; and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Alberta,
ly evaluated to further prove that it is able to fulfill the Edmonton, Canada, in 2011. From 2004 to 2007, he was an
requirements of HSR, for example, propagation character- assistant professor in the School of Network Education,
istics and cell coverage at LTE-R band, the support of high Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. He is
mobility, and system capacity and capability. Hence, more an associate professor at the School of Computer and
investigations of LTE-R are needed. Information Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University,
China. His research interests include wireless communica-
Acknowledgments tion theory and signal processing technologies.
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Ke Guan (kguan@bjtu.edu.cn) received his B.E. and
Foundation of China Grants 61501020 and U1334202, Funda- Ph.D. degrees from Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU),
mental Research Funds for the Central Universities Grant China, in 2006 and 2014, respectively. He is an associate
2015RC025, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grants professor at the State Key Laboratory of Rail Traffic Con-
2015M570030 and 2016M591355, State Key Laboratory of trol and Safety and the School of Electronic and Informa-
Rail Traffic Control and Safety Grants RCS2016ZJ005 and tion Engineering, BJTU. In 2015, he was awarded a
RCS2015ZZ001, National 863 Project under Grant Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Re­­
2014AA01A706, Natural Science Base Research Plan in searchers. He was the recipient of a 2014 International

september 2016 | IEEE vehicular technology magazine ||| 57

Union of Radio Science Young Scientist Award. His current Electrical Engineering Department, Institute for Informa-
research interests are the measurement and modeling of tion and Communication Technologies, Electronics and
wireless propagation channels for high-speed railway Applied Mathematics, UCL. He also serves as an associate
communications and future terahertz communication sys- editor for IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
tems. He has authored/coauthored over 70 research and IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. He is the
papers in international journals and conferences. author or coauthor of two books and more than 170 jour-
Zhangdui Zhong (zhdzhong@bjtu.edu.cn) received his nal papers and conference communications and was the
B.S. and M.S. degrees from Beijing Jiaotong University recipient of the 1999–2000 Institution of Engineering and
(BJTU), China, in 1983 and 1988, respectively. He is a pro- Technology Marconi Premium Award and the 2004 IEEE
fessor at BJTU and a chief scientist with the State Key Lab- Vehicular Technology Society Neal Shepherd Award.
oratory of Rail Traffic Control and Safety, BJTU. He is also
a director of the Innovative Research Team of the Ministry References
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58 ||| IEEE vehicular technology magazine | september 2016

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