Europe’s transition to 5G-Mission Critical based rail communications system (FRMCS) is approaching its System introduction point.
At today’s FP2-MORANE-2 Mid-Term Conference, the consortium showed off plans to begin FRMCS testing across three laboratories. This laboratory phase will mark the first comprehensive stress-test of the railway new telecommunication system, which will replace the ageing GSM-R standard.
Engineers are currently integrating critical FRMCS equipment – including cab radios, dispatcher systems, 5G networks, Mission Critical, interworking with GSM-R Functions – testing voice communication, Railway Emergency Call, and also ETCS, automated train operation (ATO) and TCMS – to ensure hardware from different vendors can “talk” to one another across borders, in a fully compliant way with the FRMCS Specifications.
This represents a key step toward ensuring operational continuity, interoperability and resilience for the future European railway communication ecosystem.
Crucially, the consortium has published the first unified set of system test cases, based on the FRMCS v2.2 specifications, which cover onboard and trackside systems, and FRMCS interfaces. These protocols provide the industry with a standardised blueprint for how FRMCS hardware needs to perform under realistic railway conditions. (....)