Including the satellite industry in future railway mobile communication systems: The SAIRCC project

What will railway systems be like in 20 years? Surely they’ll be more automatized, but what sort of requirements will they have?

How can future traffic control systems be both efficient and safe?

The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is an initiative supported by the EU. It aims to increase the safety and interoperability of rail transport in Europe.

Rail transport will be improved through a Europe-wide standard for train control and command systems, replacing existing national systems. 

Magister Solutions took part in the ESA-funded SAIRCC project, which created options for including the satellite industry in future railway mobile communication systems. The goal was to develop a new air interface for railway control communications. 

The project started in June 2020 and ended in March 2022. Other partners that participated in the project include Sitael, Thales Alenia Space Italy, and the University of Salzburg.

Magister developed a simulator of the satellite air interface

Magister’s former Research Director Janne Kurjenniemi described some of the requirements for the air interface:

“The resulting air interface needs to be compatible with 5G networks, given that 5G terrestrial networks are expected to also provide services for railway control communications in commercially viable geographical locations.”

Magister created a simulator for evaluating the performance of the air interface. The performance was validated through realistic packet-level simulations.

Finding the best solution for fulfilling the needs of future railways

The work involved analysis of the existing railways, utilized technologies, and different kinds of future scenarios. The objective was to build up a traffic scenario and find the best solution to fulfill the needs of future railways.

Sitael was responsible for project management and the development of a Software Defined Radio (SDR) based demonstrator. Thales Alenia Space Italy was in charge of the capacity analysis and development of the air interface.

The University of Salzburg analyzed rail transport and created forecasts for growth of the traffic and its requirements for railway control communications together with Thales Alenia Space Italy.

Finally, the project developed and validated a prototype implementation of the resulting air interface in a Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform targeted for railway control communications.

Better understanding for future simulator needs

The Evolution of Railway Radio programme is being launched step by step. The draft requirements, technology selection and radio spectrum allocation were published in 2021.

Testing and validation took place between 2022 and 2024, with the first commercial operations expected to begin in 2025.

According to Kurjenniemi, Magister’s own simulation service SimLab is in the middle of this evolution.

“The air interface for future railway control communications is a great example of how Magister SimLab can be used.

We will use our knowledge to create the best possible railway air interface and also use the accumulated knowledge to develop our own simulators even further.”