Defining an Adaptable Communications System for all railways

Within Innovation Program 2 (IP2) of the European Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking, a Technology Demonstrator (TD) “adaptable communications for all railways” activity was created to bring together key stakeholders, to investigate the future communication needs, define and specify key functions and finally develop prototypes to prove the feasibility and capabilities of an adaptable communication subsystem for railways. A key aspect of the future adaptable communication system will be the support of multiple access technologies, including but not limited to LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi or SatCom, combined with bearer independence to address availability, resiliency, performance, capacity, security, safety and maintainability requirements of existing and new railway applications. The first project within IP2 is named X2Rail-1 and it has already started to • collect, assess and qualify user and system requirements from users and stakeholders, including railway operators, infrastructure managers, regulatory groups and related associations; • undertake business model analysis with the aim to explore new operating and deployment models ranging from dedicated and hybrid networks to “network-as-a-service” approaches; • specify the architecture, subsystems and functions needed to enable an adaptable communication system and • assess key criteria and create guidelines for the selection of appropriate communication technologies or radio network candidates. The paper will outline the key findings and will provide an outlook of the prototype developments planned in upcoming X2Rail projects. It will also explain the expected improvements and benefits of the future adaptable communication systems for the different railway domains to support the goals of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking