Confidential

Composite Communications & CDAS

Nick Hortin and Nick WrightNew Trains Director Scotrail Trainborne Systems Manager

FirstGroup-Rail Division

Confidential

THE RTS VISION: DIGITAL RAILWAY

• Train Operating Company and Group environment

– Franchise life, bidding cycles, and innovation• Commercial Innovations• Industry Environment Innovations

– How do we make Industry Environment Innovations happen in a disaggregated industry?

– How do we make it easy for the customer?

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THE RTS VISION: DIGITAL RAILWAY

• 1. TSLG Rail Technical Strategy 2012:– ”Real-time intelligent traffic management systems deliver high-

capacity, energy efficient, on-time railway.” – “Communication systems are optimised for operations and customer

service.”– “High-speed, high bandwidth communication networks are in use

across the rail network and on trains and provide dependable connectivity for both operational and customer facing applications for the railway and the customer. Data is made openly available to support door-to-door journey information.”

– “Introduce DAS to make significant contribution to railway operations.”

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ENABLERS: DIGITAL RAILWAY

• TSLG Rail Technical Strategy 2012:– The ”Provision of high-speed, high capacity data and

voice communication systems ” – “GSM-R and publicly available WiFi on trains is unlikely to

meet operational demands in the future.”

• CDAS• Harmonised common standards with open

architecture in order to maintain business principles, operator and route interoperability for both trains infrastructure within UK and Europe.

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DIGITAL RAILWAY:THE CHALLENGE 1

• The reliance on digital connectivity is growing exponentially and as new technologies become available, applications are quickly adapted or produced to utilise the available bandwidth.

• Currently there is no standard in place to support the communication needs, which utilises current and future communication technologies, this has already resulted in the deployment of a number of “bespoke” solutions.

• The GSM-R voice and data system is not capable of delivering the broader communication requirements for the future.

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DIGITAL RAILWAY:THE CHALLENGE 2

• The anticipated data communication platform needed to deliver the RTS 2012 vision cannot be met without an agreed set of harmonised standards.

• Early analysis and RSSB Project T964 has identified that a composite data communication approach will be necessary in order to deliver the required bandwidth and availability.

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DELIVERING THE DIGITAL RAILWAY

• The introduction of SDAS has delivered many benefits and its migration to CDAS is consistent with delivering the RTS. However, CDAS requires the specification and proving of a composite communication platform.

• The development of the communication platform for CDAS should be used to provide the basic fundamental architecture for meeting communication needs for the delivery of the RTS.

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THE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• The specification, development and trials of a real-time composite communication modular platform to form the basis of the real-time track / train bi-directional communication system for the future railway.

• Delivered through the CDAS development the communication system needs to be designed and specified such that it can overcome obsolescence issues and be easily adapted to integrate the anticipated technology of the future.

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DELIVERING THE CHALLANGE

• The creation of a Project Team to ensure industry wide consensus is maintained by engagement with key stakeholders.

• Liaison with end users to identify the business and operational issues to be addressed as part of “The Challenge”.

• A review of current and new technology to identify suitability for delivering “The Challenge” leading to the development of harmonised standards for a modular composite communication system for the rail industry.

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Composite Architecture

CompositePlatform

3/4G

GPS Etc.

stations

Other

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Current Status

• Current Situation:1. RSSB Project T964 identified the current and

anticipated requirements for on train communications, but it did not detail how these could be standardised and delivered.

2. Bespoke solutions are already being implemented, which do not easily support interoperability.

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Next Steps

Building on the work of T964 the provision of funding to support the creation of a small

consortium to manage and undertake:

1. A technology review to identify and understand current and future communication systems and technologies,

2. A feasibility study into the development and specification of a high level composite communication platform.

3. Demonstrated by limited on train trials.