GSM-R ENHANCES EUROPEAN RAIL EXPERIENCE

Anyone who has traveled through Europe by rail knows that the overall traveling experience can vary as you cross country borders — different train accommodations, different languages, different attitudes. However, one unifying theme is the mobile network infrastructure technology European railways are using to support their own voice and railroad signaling needs, and eventually to support travelers' mobile data needs. Increasingly, that technology is GSM-R.

“Every country in Europe has its own rail system, but they have worked in a collaborative mode to define the GSM-R standard,” said Sebastien Motte, director of GSM-R for Nortel Networks. “There will be network interoperability from country to country.”

GSM-R networks are constructed to provide voice and data transmission between the train conductor, rail system operations management, station crews and dispatching staff. It also supports reception and control of track signaling through the European Train Control System protocol, meaning the safety of travelers and crews is dependent on network reliability.

Networks are based on the GSM-R standard, which was approved two years ago by the International Union of Railways but has been in development for more than 10 years. The standard provides higher quality of service, faster call set-up and other features that qualify it as an adapted form of the GSM standard for mobile networks.

GSM-R is designed to support connections at train-travel speeds of up to 500 km per hour. Commercially, it has so far been used on trains moving at a top speed of about 350 km, according to Motte.

While GSM-R supports operational communications, railways deploying GSM-R are barred from using their spectrum to offer voice services to consumers and business travelers on trains because its competes with traditional carriers. However, “the rules are less clear about data,” Motte said. This loophole has inspired many railways to evaluate mobile data as an application, and several are already testing data services.

GSM-R network projects are currently underway in about 12 countries (see map), most of which are in Western Europe and Scandinavia — though railways in India also have launched projects. Three Eastern European countries — Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — are planning projects, and several other railways in Europe, China and the U.S. are conducting GSM-R feasibility studies.

GSM-R deployment activity supports a diverse community of vendors, including makers of infrastructure, handheld devices, cab radios, antennas, dispatcher terminals and network management systems.

“It's a real emerging opportunity,” said Sean Mallon, vice president of marketing and business development at Sentori, a billing and OSS vendor.

No vendor has been more successful garnering GSM-R contracts than Nortel, which has won deals to supply GSM-R technology for 60,000 of the 90,000 kilometers that have been put out for bid thus far, Motte said. Most recently, Nortel won the contract to supply the technology for Spain's Renfe rail lines in Bilbao and Santander. That's partly because Nortel hasn't had much competition. Since 1999, when Nortel won the first GSM-R contract to be awarded — by Deutsche Bahn in Germany — Siemens has emerged as the only other major vendor marketing GSM-R gear, and others have dropped out of the market.

“That project was the one that decided who would stay in the market and who wouldn't,” Motte said. “But where we still have to convince people about GSM-R is outside of Europe.”