EMULATION OF RADIO ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES FOR RAILWAY COMMUNICATIONS

EMULRADIO4RAIL will provide an innovative platform for tests and validation of various radio access technologies (Wi-Fi, GSM-R, LTE, LTE-A, 5G and Satellites). It combines simulations of the communication core network and emulation of various radio access technologies thanks to the coupling of discrete event simulator such as RIVERBED Modeler (former OPNET Modeler), Open Air Interface (OAI), various radio channel emulators, Network emulator based on OAI, models of IP parameters and real physical systems. The Emulradio4rail platform will offer a graphical based Interface for the users.

EMULRADIO4RAIL will combine very new approaches for testing, so called System in the loop (SITL) and Hardware in the loop (HITL) in order to be able to connect directly and to couple the real radio access equipment (prototypes), the radio emulators (physical systems) and the simulators able to mimic the railway network and the railway channels behavior.

The EMULRADIO4RAIL platform will work at IP level i.e. the Radio access emulator will reproduce the radio access behaviour as seen by the applications.

EMULRADIO4RAIL will investigate the various communication and environment scenarios in railways covering degraded modes, outages, network overload scenarios, interferences and other perturbations which occur in the railway environment or can be expected in the future. Particular focus will be proposed on interferences, taking into account intentional ones. Emulradio4Rail will analyze and select the communications characteristics perceivable by the applications and services using the communication bearer (like throughput, packet loss, jitter, etc.).

EMULRADIO4RAIL will assess the communication capabilities of existing radio access networks and how they can be emulated.

EMULRADIO4RAIL will provide the support to S2R members for integration of the EMULRADIO4RAIL platform in the verification labs.

Specific project objectives

The overall EMULRADIO4RAIL concept is translated into 5 specific project objectives that are addressed in the project work packages (see section 3.1):

  • Applications requirements and railway scenarios for the foreseen radio access technologies
  • Radio access emulation solutions and radio access emulation tool design, implementation and validation
  • Assessment of communications capabilities and the modelling of IP impairments
  • Support for integration of the radio access emulation tool in the verification labs of the S2R members
  • Contribution to Shift2Rail tests strategy