Comparative study of transient disturbances impact on 2G and 4G telecommunication systems in a railway context

For reliability and safety purposes, the signaling systems in the railway domain are continuously evolving. Today, in Europe, the GSM-R is used as a part of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) and the transmission of signaling information is increasingly ensured by the GSM-R. With the evolution of the telecommunication systems, new technologies using OFDM techniques, such as LTE could be exploited for railway applications. However, knowing that the railway electromagnetic environment is very hostile and rich in terms of electromagnetic interferences, studies need to be carried out to anticipate the EMC issues that could impact LTE performances. In this paper, we propose a comparative study between GSM-R and LTE communications in the presence of transient electromagnetic interferences, generally present on board trains.