Modelling Approach to Convergence Trackside Railway Networks

The railway industry developed dynamically in recent years. High-speed railway lines are being built all over the world. It is controversial that the technologies used in the area of railway mobile communication have not changed significantly since 2000. The outdated GSM-R technology, based on the standards and principles of second generation networks, is no longer capable of providing the required data transmission rate and connection reliability, while these parameters seem to be crucial for passenger safety. Therefore, designing, researching and implementing advanced train-to-ground network systems becomes one of the most pressing challenges in the industry. The implementation of last generation mobile communication systems (5G in Future Railway Mobile Communication System, FRMCS) is seen by many as a solution to this obstacle. There is also another solution based on the implementation of radioEthernet-based trackside networks (TSN). When used together, these technologies are capable of achieving high real-time performance and meeting passenger and technical information needs. However, only a few studies address the topic of this technologies convergence use. In turn, this study aims to propose an approach to perform evaluation of achievable data transmission rate and connection reliability in various railway communication scenarios using a convergence system, exploiting both FRMCS and TSN network technologies.