Research
Brief
Development of a communication and positioning
technology roadmap for the GB railways
T809 - October 2010
Overview
The Department for Transport (DfT) White Paper 'Towards a
Sustainable Transport System' and the supporting Rail Technical
Strategy (RTS) sets out a vision of intelligent trains operating on
intelligent infrastructure. Currently the GB railway uses a range
of communications and positioning technologies and often these
technologies include bespoke elements and are developed in
isolation from one another. In support of the RTS and vision there
is an expectation that there will be advances and greater
application of existing and future communication and positioning
systems. The development of a roadmap will assist the industry
with the management of these by offering guidance to the railway
industry on selecting and applying appropriate future
technologies, and to the suppliers of communications and
positioning systems to influence them in providing both standards
and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment to meet the rail
industry's objectives.
The roadmap is being developed in two stages. This first stage, a
short-term roadmap covering the next 10 years is now complete
and identifies what can be achieved based on existing
technologies and standards (since there is little scope to influence
the development of technologies and standards in this
timeframe). The results of the work conducted point less towards
the adoption of specific technologies but more towards holistic
approaches to issues such as migration, standardisation and
procurement which together will provide the necessary benefits to
end-users.
The second stage is currently underway and aims to develop the
short-term roadmap further to cover the longer term (20 years). It
is also intended to identify actions for the GB railway to take in
order to influence the development of, or identify means of
achieving the required benefit from, communications and
positioning technologies and standards for the GB railway.
Aims
RSSB R&D Programme
Block 2 Angel Square
1 Torrens Street
London EC1V 1NY
On behalf of the Future Communications and Positioning
Systems Advisory Group (FC&PS AG), a sub-group of the
research@rssb.co.uk
www.rssb.co.uk/research/pages/
default.aspx
1
Development of a communication and positioning technology roadmap for the GB railways
T809 - October 2010
Vehicle/Train Control and Communications System Interface
Committee (VTC&C SIC), the aim of this research project is to
develop a roadmap to provide guidance to the GB railways on the
adoption of communication (both fixed and mobile) and
positioning technologies with a view to ensuring that, as far as
possible, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products can be used
without the need for expensive bespoke or customised
equipment.
Method
This research has initially considered a 10-year time frame
(producing a short-term roadmap) and is looking externally at
available solutions, and internally at the ways in which
technologies are employed in the rail industry.
The research was required to address the following questions:
 Which technologies enable the greatest benefits towards
the Department for Transport's High Level Output
Specification (HLOS) requirements, which seek to deliver a
sustainable railway with increased capacity?
 What are the key dependencies within the roadmap such as
standards, regulation, procurement method, supply chain?
 How can GB railways influence future technologies in a proactive manner?
 Where can the GB railway focus its resources to make the
most effective impact?
The research has built upon the work conducted by Technical
Strategy Advisory Group (TSAG) to identify those rail applications
needed to deliver the RTS. Two industry roadmapping
workshops were held, which addressed only those applications
that require underpinning from communications or positioning
technologies. The second of these was attended by over 50
people from across the spectrum of stakeholders. The outputs of
the workshops have been used to expand, refine, and focus these
applications with the views and experience of cross-industry
stakeholders. One-to-one discussions with many interested
parties, as well as research into the state of development of a
number of technologies, have been used to cross-match rail
demands with potential solutions. All of these outputs were used
to produce the short-term roadmap.
Findings
2
RSSB
The research has been conducted from a top-down approach
basing technology service requirements on application driven
demands and desires. Key findings include:
 The importance of mobile data communications as enabling
technologies.
 The importance of fixed data communication services.
 Mobile voice communications are important but well
addressed by existing system implementation.
 Guaranteed Quality of Service (low/predictable latency and
high reliability of transmission) for fixed and mobile data
communication services.
 An immediate demand for basic and augmented
positioning.
 The importance of existing solutions in helping to deliver
future applications within the required timescales.
Stage one of the research has recognised that there are no
single, stand-alone technologies that deliver all of the GB
railway's future communication or positioning requirements. The
research has identified that a more co-ordinated, strategic
approach to the use of technologies is needed to ensure that enduser requirements are met. This is in contrast to initial thinking
about how to influence future technologies, as it is now clear that
the industry does not have the critical mass to wield such
influence, at least not in a way which would yield cost-effective
solutions.
This change in mindset will permit new applications to be
progressively rolled-out across the railway at a lower cost and,
just as importantly, in a way which will allow applications to
continue to function during changes to some of the underlying,
supporting technologies such as upgrades to commercial mobile
networks. This is essential to permit the railway to move forward
with many of the applications that will be necessary to enable the
goals of the long term strategies to be met.
Deliverables
A research report describing the short-term roadmap has been
produced and is published alongside this research brief.
Next Steps
The FC&PS AG has reviewed the findings from the first stage of
the research and agreed the objectives have been met. The
FC&PS AG has also accepted a number of key actions from the
first phase of the research for the rail industry to support progress
towards the longer term strategy set out in the RTS and to offer
medium and longer term benefit to rail industry organisations.
Most notably:
RSSB
3
Development of a communication and positioning technology roadmap for the GB railways
T809 - October 2010
 The necessity for a continuation to the expansion of the
fixed telecommunications network (FTN) and its upgrade to
FTNe (enhanced).
 The development of business cases to identify the optimum
means of addressing the need for broadband mobile
connectivity.
 Involvement of the GB railways in the standardisation
bodies considering the successor to GSM-R.
 The development GB rail specific maps and mapping
algorithms.
 Trials of COTS technologies to ensure they function in a rail
environment before advocating their wider use.
 The exploration of opportunities to work together with other
GB organisations (typically Governmental) which face
similar communication and positioning challenges.
 The development of a set of standard interfaces between
communication and positioning technologies, and railway
applications.
 The establishment of a GB railway data management
strategy.
As well raising industry awareness of these, the FC&PS AG will
also look to develop these further in the second phase of this
research project. This is expected to involve the establishment of
working groups and small project teams to focus on each of the
various actions and to take them forward in a co-ordinated
manner. FC&PS AG has also been working closely with TSAG to
ensure that when the long-term roadmap is completed it can form
the second tier of the TSAG route maps and provide a firm basis
for planning future FC&PS AG and VTC&C SIC work streams.
Already synergies with the FC&PS AG Operational
Communications work have been identified and it will be essential
that different parts of the industry work together to realise the
potential benefits available from early sight of emerging
technologies. RSSB is also initiating a more focussed piece of
research that is related to the finding concerning augmented
positioning. This is T892 Data and analysis for a cost-effective
GPS-based locator with simple augmentation and should begin in
2010 Q4.
Contact
For more information please contact:
Head of Engineering Research
R&D Programme
RSSB
research@rssb.co.uk
4
RSSB