Impacts and benefits

Expected Scientific and Technical results

The mmW4Rail project will contribute to the development of reliable and efficient T2T and T2I communications able to complement existing telecommunication standards in specific areas and for specific Railway use cases. This will push clearly the development of the new concept « mobility as a service » required for multimodality. The outputs of the mmW4Rail project will also contribute to the development of Transport safety and security in the context of autonomous trains as a brick of interconnected Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). More specifically, in line with the project work program, the expected scientific and technical results are the following:

  • To provide to scientific community and industry new dynamic radio channel sounding and modelling in in the railway domain for the three specific use cases highlighted in the mmW4Rail project. The channel models will then be used in a second step to evaluate the performance of the different algorithms solution proposed to enhance the T2T and T2I radio link and also in the system level simulator developed within the project. If the channel models will prove their efficiency, it will be then possible in the future to consider these models for implementation into mmW channel emulator in order to evaluate new railway communication systems in emulated environments, saving cost and time for real trials and contributing to the “zero on site testing” push for the future.
  • To provide specifications, design and prototyping for mmW parametrizable antennas for both T2T and T2I platforms taking into account the railway specific context in the mmW band and for the 3 specific use cases and environment highlighted in the project.
  • To develop scalable system level simulation tool for mmW band T2T and T2I radio communications taking into account particular railway channel model, antenna design, signal processing design, system deployment and specific constraints/requirements for the concerned use cases. The system level simulation tools will allow us performing more rigorous simulations.
  • To develop codebooks designs taking into account mobility and the specific railway environments and use cases. The new algorithms and designs for physical layer enhancement of train radio will be also evaluated in a simple and fast manner with the system level simulation tool.

Expected Societal impacts

The objective in considering mmW is to improve the Railway communication system adaptability in view of the application of full bearer independency. This will contribute to the development of autonomous trains as a solution to increase lines capacity and to reduce operation and maintenance costs. This will contribute to be able to exploit any kind of railway lines by being able to maintain the competitiveness of small lines. These is mandatory to contribute to the concept of “mobility as a service” for all people and goods.

 

Expected Economical and Environmental impacts

The reduction of costs while increasing capacity and competitiveness in the Railway domain thanks to the development of efficient and reliable communication systems, will contribute to increase competitiveness of railway system compared to other transport modes. This will help the modal shift from aviation or road transport mode to reduce global carbon footprint. Furthermore, the development of new channel models, parametrizable antenna models, new algorithms to enhance wireless link performance and system level simulation tool will contribute to the “zero on site” testing philosophy pushed by Shift2rail JU to consolidate European rail industry leadership on the global market. Recognising the importance of limited carbon footprint and energy efficiency for environmental reasons, the mmW4Rail project will result in better and more sustainable trains thanks to the development of wireless communication solutions in all railway domains.