5G-REalistic radio channel MOdels enabled system evaluation for RAilway environments – 5G-REMORA

The development of safe and secure applications such as remote driving, remote diagnostics, platooning of trains and autonomous vehicles in railway context has led to an unprecedented need for reliable radio links. The Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) is designed at European level to answer these needs. It will be IP based, multi-bearer and resilient to technology evolution and interference. It will be the system that offers the railway industry a full migration towards 5G as GSM-R will become obsolete in 2030. Its deployment is crucial and urgent to contribute to the modal shift (from road and air) towards rail via the generalization of intelligent and interconnected transport systems.
5G features such as Massive MIMO, beamforming, and multicarrier wave forms, as well as the FRMCS multi-bearer capability will require drastic modifications of the radio deployment methodologies as compared to the ones used for GSM-R. In addition, on-track systematic system validations should be reduced to a minimum for cost and time efficiency but also due to the urgency to replace GSM-R system. This approach called “zero-on-site testing” is based on (i) realistic railway radio channel characterization and modelling, (ii) system-level evaluation based on these models. The 5G REMORA project will bring a crucial brick for “zero-on-site testing” of FRMCS via the elaboration of new reliable digital testing solutions. In this context, the 5G REMORA project is set up to develop realistic 5G railway radio channel models from on-site sounder measurements collected in various scenarios, stochastic models and enhanced ray tracing. Three different operational MIMO channel sounding systems with specific properties in terms of mobility and autonomy will be used to address the different scenarios of interest (high-speed, dense urban, tunnel, etc). SNCF will make the testing trains and other required facilities available for the several measurement campaigns. This will enable accurate FRMCS system evaluation to anticipate and facilitate its wide deployment in railway frequency bands (900 - 1900 MHz) that are not covered in other 5G related projects. In addition, the 5G REMORA project will develop optimized radio scheduling techniques for the railway applications to support discussions for the evolution of the ETSI TC-RT standard.