LTE for Railways (LTE-R)
LTE for Railways (LTE-R) is a next-gen communications network dedicated for railway services, enabling high-speed wireless voice and data communications inside trains, from the train to the ground and from train to train. This network supports voice communication among drivers, control center operators, maintenance and other railway staff supporting; push-to-talk group communication, broadcasting, location-dependent addressing and multilevel prioritization; data communication for the train control signaling and other operation and maintenance as well as text messaging during voice communication; multimedia communication for wireless video surveillance, mobile video conference, file sharing, mobile office and passenger infotainment services.
Till now Global System for Mobile Communications - Railway (GSM-R) has been the standard for digital railway communications. But with the forecasted obsolescence of GSM-R technology in 2025, railways’ are migrating to LTE-R as the new standard.
This system cover the general functional design requirements of such system for Indian Railway coaches. System supports key features and technology based on internet services through Quad band GSM/GPRS or HSDPA/HSUPA modem and through Wi-Fi connectivity to the base station for remote accessibility of the system and monitoring of important parameters.
LTE-R when compared to GSM-R offers several advantages, like low latency, higher data capacity and high security. LTE-R can also support passenger information applications, closed-circuit TV (CCTV), traffic management, ticketing and other services on a single network
LTE-R is less prone to interference as it uses licensed frequency bands, has a coverage range of over several kilometers and supports mobility management that enables reduced handover times between adjacent cells. This makes it a better choice for railway communications.
Evolved NodeB (eNB) The Evolved NodeB (eNodeB) is the base station for LTE radio. eNodeB is the RAN (Radio Access Network) node in the network architecture that is responsible for radio transmission to and reception from UEs ( User Equipment) in one or more cells. The radio coverage area of an eNodeB is called a cell. Accordingly, the cell site is where the eNodeB radio equipment and its antennas are placed. The eNodeB is connected to EPC nodes by means of an S1 interface. The eNodeB is also connected to its neighbor eNodeBs by means of the X2 interface. eNB is equivalent of BSS in GSM-R. Physically the eNodeB consists of the followings:
