•   ABOUT
  •   CONTACT
  •   LOG-IN/REGISTER

Railtalent

  • HOMEPAGE
  • NEWS
    • 2021-2023 Train Rail Hackathon
    • Sustainable Development Goals
  • SDGs
  • CAREER PATHWAYS
    • Infrastructure
    • Vehicles
    • Operations
    • Signalling
    • Economics
    • Administration
    • Academia
    • Career Profiles
  • MEMBERS
    • Research
    • Education & Training
    • Enterprises
    • Associations & Networks
    • Individuals
    • Education Providers Directory
  • PARTICIPATE
    • Events
    • Courses
I AM/SEARCH RAILTALENT
Wednesday, 01 April 2020 / Published in Featured, Infrastructure, Signalling

FRMCS

Fully ture Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) is the future worldwide telecommunication system designed by UIC, in close cooperation with the different stakeholders from the rail sector, as the successor of GSM-R but also as a key enabler for rail transport digitalisation.

THE FIRST GLOBAL FRMCS CONFERENCE

The first Global FRMCS Conference took place on 14-15 May 2019 in Paris, UIC headquarters.

This conference will be a unique opportunity to know about the current status of FRMCS specification and standardisation, to understand the global timeline of its introduction and to consider the operational impacts of the foreseen migration scenarios. It will also provide a global vision of the various rail evolutions that will benefit from this new system as a common support to train modernisation.

A global attendance
Over 200 participants from several countries and from many diverse areas such as telecom and signaling domains, regulation authorities and standardisation bodies, railway infrastructure managers and railway undertakings but also industry leaders and manufacturers are expected to attend this international conference whose aim is to facilitate an open, relevant and comprehensive exchange of information between the numerous actors of the rail sector.

GENERAL CONTEXT

In 1994, ETSI GSM standard was selected by UIC as the bearer for first Digital Railway Radio Communication System. Needs of railways were captured in dedicated specifications named EIRENE, including both functional and system aspects. These specifications were reinforced as GSM-R within ETSI/3GPP international standards.

The first operational implementation of GSM-R targeting the setup of this new technology was launched in 1999, and the first countrywide GSM-R operation started in 2004. In parallel, the EU Directives officially adopted the GSM-R as the basis for mobile communication between train and track for voice (train radio) and control-command and signaling data (ETCS), with the aim to form a worldwide standard, the European Rail Traffic Management System, the now well-known ERTMS.

Some of the clear objectives of ERTMS were to create a full homogeneity in the European railway networks, to optimize the global investments for train operations, and at the same time to guarantee the interoperability between national networks and commercial vehicles everywhere. This interoperability is regulated through the European Directives and the Technical Standards for Interoperability of Control Command and Signaling (CCS TSI), published by the EU and supervised by the European Union Agency for Railway (ERA).

GSM-R has been a great success not only in Europe where more than 100,000 Km of railway tracks are daily operated through GSM-R but also worldwide, and this number will double within the next years due to the on-going installations of this technology all over the world,

Nevertheless, on one side the needs of the railways are constantly evolving, and on the other side the telecom standards evolution remains dependent of the telecom industry evolution cycles, with an end of support for GSM-R planned by 2030 onwards.

These considerations led UIC, as soon as 2012, to launch the first studies for a successor to GSM-R, pertinently named Future Rail Mobile Communications System (FRMCS),

The UIC Project then concretely delivered the new User Requirements Specifications (URS) focusing mainly on rail communication needs- as a basis for the development of the GSM-R successor.

This anticipation was highly welcomed by the railway industry and resulted in structuring the FRMCS initiative with the following governance and workgroups:

  • The Steering Group leads the global FRMCS strategy and planning,
  • The FRMCS Functionality Working Group (FWG) ensures the adequate matching between system functionalities and railway needs,
  • The FRMCS Architecture and Technology Group Working Group (ATWG) has the mission to define the targeted architectures and to evaluate the candidate technologies,
  • The UIC Group for Frequency Aspects (UGFA) takes care of the expected needs for spectrum, particularly sensitive in the transition scenarios.

The missions of these groups also encompass the following key activities:

  • The maintenance and evolution of User Requirements Specifications, which latest version is provided hereunder (URS 3.0.0),
  • The production of essential numerous Functional and System Principle Use Cases, necessary for the development of the corresponding functional and technical standards within telecom standardization Bodies in ETSI Technical Committee for Rail Telecommunications (ETSI TC-RT) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project Technical Specifications Groups (3GPP TSG) and in particular the Service and System Aspects (SA),
  • The definition of migration strategies from GSM-R to FRMCS with their associated impacts in terms of traffic analysis and frequency spectrum requirements. The actions on harmonization of frequencies at the European level and possibly worldwide are based on the System Reference Document ETSI TR 103 333 V1.1.1 (2017-02) and conducted together with stakeholders and partners,
  • And more generally, consider the extension of usage of FRMCS to other domains such as Urban Rail, with the ambition to create synergies with other infrastructure stakeholders.

The rail Industry stakeholders are kindly invited to review the latest URS v3.0.0 and to send their comments by filling the URS Review Template provided below together with the FRMCS contact persons.

As a conclusion, FRMCS has the objective to become the worldwide standard, conforming to European regulation as well as responding to the needs and obligations of rail organizations outside of Europe. As such, the UIC FRMCS project duly associates non-European members and is a first concrete application of UIC strategy to build a Global Rail Traffic Management System for the whole rail industry.

CONTACTS

Dan Mandoc, FRMCS Project Manager
dan.mandoc@networkrail.co.uk

Robert Sarfati, Chairman ETSI TC-RT
rsarfati@systra.com

Jean-Michel Evanghelou, UIC
evanghelou@uic.org

Documentation

  • FRMCS – User Requirements Specification – Version 4.0.0 15 January 2019 – PDF – 1.2 MbSee the document
  • Review Form for URS 4.0.0 16 January 2019 – Excel – 50 kbDownload
  • FRMCS – Use cases – Version 1.0.0 26 March 2019 – PDF – 3 MbSee the document
  • FRMCS – Use Case Specification – Version 1.0.0 26 March 2019 – Excel – 53 kbDocument comments formDownload
  • FRMCS – User Requirements Specification – Version 3.0.0 31 January 2018 – PDF – 2 MbSee the document
  • FRMCS – User Requirements Specification – Version 2.0 21 June 2016 – PDF – 3.3 MbSee the document
  • Tweet

What you can read next

Thomas White (US)
Reinvigorating your career
The seasons of your career

Contribute

  • Login

Recent Posts

  • European Green Deal: Commission proposes transformation of EU economy and society to meet climate ambitions

    Last July, the European Commission adopted a pa...
  • New tools and insights to optimise infra-capacity, deal with disturbances and improve train services

    Apply the skills and knowledge needed to deal w...
  • UIC World Congress on Rail Training, Talent and Development (WCRT) 2022

    The UIC is pleased to inform you that the ...
  • Post Master’s Degree in Smart Mobility: Digital Transformation of Mobility Systems – executive

    Drive tomorrow’s mobility Digital technol...
  • TRA Visions 2022 Young Researcher Competition Invitation

    TRA VISIONS project is organising a compet...

Categories

  • General
  • General News
  • Featured
  • Profile
  • Strategic
  • Jobpost
  • Tactical
  • Operational
  • Infrastructure
  • Signalling
  • Vehicles
  • Operations
  • Economics
  • Administration
  • Academia
  • Gender equity
  • Sustainable mobility

Archives

  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017

Get in Touch With Us.

Join the community of Rail Talents

CONTACT US NOW

Rail Talents is the platform for:

  • Exchanging experiences, knowledge, success stories and management practices with international peers;
  • Publishing and reading of  articles, videos, blogs, presentations;
  • Developing competencies and expertise;
  • Engaging with a wide range stakeholders: railway professionals, industry partners, universities, etc.

MEMBERS

  • Research
  • Education & Training
  • Enterprises
  • Associations & Networks
  • Individuals

PATHWAYS

  • Infrastructure
  • Vehicles
  • Signalling
  • Economics
  • Operations
  • Administration
  • Academia
  • Profiles

PARTICIPATE

  • Events
  • Courses

COPYRIGHT 2018 RAILWAY TALENTS

What are you looking for?

I am a future Rail Talent

Students, apprentices, professionals outside of the rail sector

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

I am Rail Talent

Rail professionals,, consultants, trainers, researchers, experts.

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

I am looking for Rail Talent

Employers, project managers, employment agencies, job boards.

CLICK FOR MORE INFO
TOP