Zero on site testing of railway wireless systems: the Emulradio4Rail platforms

The European Train Control System (ETCS) relies today on the 2nd generation cellular system GSM-R. GSM-R obsolescence has triggered the evolution of the current European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) to the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS), under development. FRMCS considers the use of several radio access technologies in parallel such as Wi-Fi, LTE, Satellite and 5G. Testing new communication systems along railway tracks is time and money consuming. Consequently, it is important to develop a zero-on-site-testing approach thanks to the development of emulation platforms. These platforms, combining hardware and software, are able to reproduce in laboratory real railway infrastructure behavior and scenarios. This paper presents the EMULRADIO4RAIL platforms, developed in the framework of Shift2Rail program and gives examples of results obtained.