1.Professional
Huawei GSM-R solution is strictly developed in compliance to GSM-R standards and built of network elements such as IP core network, conventional and distributed base stations, intelligent network, dispatchers and mobile stations just to name the key components. To offer maximum flexibility to our customers, Huawei GSM-R solution incorporates products from market leading GSM-R sub-system suppliers such as dispatcher sets, performance measurement solutions or Cab Radios. Strict compliance across our interfaces enabled our customers to mix and match multi vendor GSM-R infrastructures, i.e. Core Network supplied by vendor A and Access (BSS) Network supplied by vendor B. These multi-vendor infrastructures are in operation since many years and have repeatedly been validated by rail customers in China, and Turkey. Huawei GSM-R products are strictly developed according to the latest EIRENE specifications, and meet all functional and QoS requirements required for interoperability.
Compliance Certificates Issued by Notified Bodies and Rail Customers
In May 2009, Huawei obtained EIRENE compliancy certificate from Lloyd’s register (European Notified Body).
“In terms of functions, all GSM-R-specific functions are achieved and all functions comply with the EIRENE specifications.
The network interfaces and signaling messages of the GSM-R system comply with the related 3GPP protocols.”
In 2010 TUV Rheinland and Testhouse Deutsche Bahn Systel confirmed Huawei EIRENE compliancy in an extensive IOT campaign performed between Funkwerk cab radio equipment and Huawei GSM-R system.
“The GSM-R cab radio MESA23-05 (SW CR_SW 04.07.03) have been assessed within the Huawei GSM-R Trackside Network (configuration according to chapter 4.2.4) in respect of compliance with the applicable requirements. No deviations from the interoperability requirements have been revealed.”
In 2012, Huawei received Deutsche Bahn customer certificate confirming Huawei EIRENE compliancy and IOT.
“The Huawei test system was examined in our test laboratory in different scenarios, based on the acceptance procedures of the test catalogue, which we presented on the ERA conference (ERA document F017_111014). It has become apparent that all stipulated GSM-R performance characteristics are available and no defects/fault reports are pending.”
Comprehensive IOT Coverage
As early as 2005 Huawei started extensive interoperability campaigns with market leading GSM-R peripheral equipment suppliers. Our GSM-R labs offer all necessary facilities to integrate latest features and customer specific developments for the rail transport segment. In the past, we performed interoperability test with the most important market players of GSM-R products.
Today, Huawei GSM-R solution has been successfully IOT’ed with GSM-R infrastructures (core and access sub systems) from NSN and Nortel/Kapsch. Some of these networks are in rail operation for many years. For terminals and other OEM sub-systems we integrated GSM-R solutions from SIEMENS, Funkwerk, Frequentis, Selex, Sierra Wireless and many more.
In several of our commercial projects, Huawei GSM-R solution is fully integrated into other vender’s GSM-R infrastructures (NSS and BSS). For example, for China’s Cheng Guan line, Huawei’s GSM-R NSS interconnects with NSN GSM-R NSS, in Guangzhou-Shenzhen Express Line, Huawei BSS interoperates with NSN Core-Network, and in Xinfeng shunting yard, Huawei BSS interoperates with Nortel/Kapsch NSS. In Turkey Huawei BSS is fully integrated with NSN core network for the Eskisehir-Alayunt-Kutahya-Balikesir, EKB ERTMS line.
Validated high speed coverage
High-speed trains help railways to gain market shares on passenger traffic and answer customer’s demands in mobility. New high speed lines with speeds of 350km/h are seen more frequently. In wireless communication, high speed brings challenges, for example, the Doppler frequency shift requires highly sophisticated technology to re-structure RF signal quality, with speed- handovers appear more frequently which again add on to the overall quality of service of the end to end system. Therefore, for high speed trains new technologies are needed to combat the challenges of velocity.
Automatic frequency correction (AFC) is used in Huawei GSM-R solution to resolve the challenges caused by the Doppler frequency shift, highly sophisticated handover algorithms are used to enable smooth handovers even in high speed situations. To further reduce impact to QoS by handovers, Huawei’s distributed BTS allows to completely avoid handovers across many BTS sites, therefore eliminating any QoS impact caused by the handovers for a significant extent of the network. These technologies have proven their potential on railway lines like the Shanghai maglev line which is operating at speeds of 430km/h. In China, Huawei’s high speed GSM-R solution is applied on the Guangzhou-Shenzhen railway line a CTCS level 3 (coherent to ETCS L2) line operating at 350 km/h and as well as a number of other lines operating at similar speeds.
2.Reliable
Full redundancy solution
GSM-R plays an important role as bearer service for ETCS L2 data. Highest values of reliability are needed to ensure railway operation can be maintained uninterrupted. Huawei GSM-R solution is designed to ensure highest reliability through a 3- tier strategy involving board level, network element level and system level.
On board level, 1+1 hot backup modes are applied to all major boards. In addition, software error tolerance technologies are used on every board, e.g. failure isolation, flow control, task monitor, storage protection, data verification to name a few.
At network element level, Huawei GSM-R solution offers several types of nodal backup options. For the GSM-R core network a geographical redundancy such as dual-homing MSC, Mini-A-Flex, duo-location, SGSN/GGSN pool and 1+1HLR redundancy options are applied to further enhance the overall network reliability and availability. These redundancy options are a perfect tool avoiding any network service interruptions in case of major incidents such as loss of a complete site. Besides the core network special focus has been given to the BSC, which for GSM-R is considered a reliability bottleneck. With Huawei BSC hot backup solution this bottleneck has successfully been eliminated by utilizing a BSC pool technology.
At system level, Huawei co-site double coverage feature is used to ensure high reliability as the BTS creates two cells coexisting within the same site location. If one of the cells fails, the other cell takes over and thus improving overall system reliability dramatically.
Mature reliability methodology
Professional tools are used to analyze network wide system reliability and assist to deploy the most reliable network architecture for a GSM-R project. Necessary reliability parameters including failure modes, recovery time and redundancy modes are considered as input for the tool. As a result a reliability block diagram is created highlighting key figures for each of the involved network elements which help the design team to predict overall system reliability, identify most vulnerable network parts and to improve the final networking design.
3.Evolutional
In the railway industry, demands for broadband data services are increasing tremendously. For example, video surveillance and PIS are demanded to improve railway safety and passenger satisfaction. To fulfill these requirements wireless broadband data services are needed. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is seen as the candidate that can fulfill these data requirements and at the same time allow railways to smoothly upgrade from their existing GSM-R infrastructure. LTE as the next generation of railway wireless communication technology is studied by many railway bodies and Huawei is strongly supporting these studies. The migration from GSM-R to LTE is seen as a natural evolution path especially considering that these technologies already co-exist in many consumer communication devices today. As a truly global vendor in the telecommunication industry, Huawei is a major player in the advanced technologies of GSM and LTE. Based on shared hardware platforms and smart radio site solutions, Huawei GSM-R 5.0 today supports the evolution from GSM-R to LTE for rail. Huawei GSM-R single-cabinet core network (eCNS300) adopts the ATCA platform, and it has the advantages of excellent performance and high integration. More importantly, the eCNS300 can evolve from GSM-R into LTE thanks to its capability to support not only GSM-R but also LTE. On the other hand, Huawei’s dual mode base station BTS3900 supports both GSM-R and LTE.
