scholarly journals Railway Wireless Communications Channel Characterization

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 345
Author(s):  
Nerea Fernández-Berrueta ◽  
Jon Goya ◽  
Jaione Arrizabalaga ◽  
Iker Moya ◽  
Jaizki Mendizabal

Railway applications are in continuous evolution with the aim of offering a more efficient, sustainable, and safer transportation system for the users. Generally, these applications are constantly exchanging information between the systems onboard the train and the trackside through a wireless communication. Nowadays, Global System for Mobile communications-Railway (GSM-R) is the technology used by European Train Control System (ETCS), but it is becoming obsolete. Therefore, alternatives for this technology have to be found for the different railway applications. Its natural evolution is to move forward with the latest technology deployed: Long-Term Evolution (LTE), which the Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN) have already deployed. Therefore, testing the performance of this communication technology in the railway environment could be useful to assess its suitability and reduce the cost of railway network dedicated deployment. In order to do that, a methodology to characterize the communication environment is proposed. The main goal is to measure geolocated impairments of any communication channel in a railway environment being able to determine its behavior of the different communication technologies and find out possible coverage issues. Moreover, it could help in the selection of suitable communication technology for railway. This paper presents a brief description of the communication for railways and its QoS parameters for performance measuring. Afterward, the testing methodology is described, and then, the communication channel measurement campaign on a real track in Spain where the railway environment is variable is presented (tunnels, rural/urban area…). Finally, the measurements and results on this real track in Spain are shown. The results provide suitability of the 4G technologies based on the delay requirements for the implementation of ETCS over it.

Author(s):  
Mohammad Istiak Hossain ◽  
Jan I. Markendahl

AbstractSmall-scale commercial rollouts of Cellular-IoT (C-IoT) networks have started globally since last year. However, among the plethora of low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies, the cost-effectiveness of C-IoT is not certain for IoT service providers, small and greenfield operators. Today, there is no known public framework for the feasibility analysis of IoT communication technologies. Hence, this paper first presents a generic framework to assess the cost structure of cellular and non-cellular LPWAN technologies. Then, we applied the framework in eight deployment scenarios to analyze the prospect of LPWAN technologies like Sigfox, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, LTE-M, and EC-GSM. We consider the inter-technology interference impact on LoRaWAN and Sigfox scalability. Our results validate that a large rollout with a single technology is not cost-efficient. Also, our analysis suggests the rollout possibility of an IoT communication Technology may not be linear to cost-efficiency.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
SAM DESIERE ◽  
LUDO STRUYVEN

Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly popular in the public sector to improve the cost-efficiency of service delivery. One example is AI-based profiling models in public employment services (PES), which predict a jobseeker’s probability of finding work and are used to segment jobseekers in groups. Profiling models hold the potential to improve identification of jobseekers at-risk of becoming long-term unemployed, but also induce discrimination. Using a recently developed AI-based profiling model of the Flemish PES, we assess to what extent AI-based profiling ‘discriminates’ against jobseekers of foreign origin compared to traditional rule-based profiling approaches. At a maximum level of accuracy, jobseekers of foreign origin who ultimately find a job are 2.6 times more likely to be misclassified as ‘high-risk’ jobseekers. We argue that it is critical that policymakers and caseworkers understand the inherent trade-offs of profiling models, and consider the limitations when integrating these models in daily operations. We develop a graphical tool to visualize the accuracy-equity trade-off in order to facilitate policy discussions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Smaniotto Costa ◽  
Tatiana Ruchinskaya ◽  
Konstantinos Lalenis

<p>The COST Action 18110 Underground4value (http://underground4value.eu) aims to advance knowledge on how to guarantee continuity of use and significance of underground historic fabric. It is collecting information, experiences and knowhow to base the development of research and training. The Action focusses on underground regeneration, revitalisation of the public realm and skills development for people concerned with underground heritage.</p><p>This contribution centres the attention of the Working Group on Planning Approaches. It also looks at the role of local authorities, as enablers and facilitators, in coordination, use  and management of underground built heritage. In this framework underground built heritage is considered as a social resource with integrated programmes of physical, economic and social measures, backed by strategic stakeholder dialogue.</p><p>On the one hand, this contribution discusses the structure and goals of the WG, as it pays attention to the necessary complementarities between functional approaches – at the level of regions and city – and social and cultural approaches involving citizens’ engagement and empowerment – at the local level. This WG aims to provide a reflection on sustainable approaches to preserve the underground built heritage and, at the same time, to unfold the case by case approach for potential use of underground space. On the other hand, to achieve its objectives the WG on Planning Approaches is setting together potentials and constraints in the efforts to make better use of underground heritage. This contribution, therefore, sheds lights on the preliminary results of the WG. It is centred on the learned lessons, challenges and barriers - from a planning science perspective - that experts met in their efforts to tackle Underground Built Heritage. Achieving this goal makes the call for an educational paradigm shift - as the Action is not only interested in compiling the results, rather on experiences that can be analysed and learned. This requires a dynamic understanding of knowledge, abilities and skills, towards creating more effective coalitions of ‘actors’ within localities, by developing structures, which encourage long term collaborative relationships. Enabled by the gained knowledge, the WG will define the best tailored ways to forward this knowledge for planners and decision-makers.</p>


Author(s):  
Oshiel Martínez Chapa ◽  
Jorge Eduardo Salazar Castillo ◽  
Saul Roberto Quispe Aruquipa

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors that have driven the public debt in Mexico and its consequences on the economy. The hypothesis proposed is that the increase in debt is related to factors such as discretion in the management of public resources, the guarantee of oil resources, the cost of financial bailouts and the growing social spending exercised. The research question is: How has public debt evolved in the medium and long term, and what are the consequences? The methodology used is qualitative in that it analyzes the facts and documents, and the second is quantitative in that it uses a regression model in which a growth rate of the variable in question is used. The data come from institutions such as the Bank of Mexico, the World Bank, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), as well as World Population Review. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for governments to adopt responsible policies in order to influence growth and economic development, and not that austerity policies cause low investment and unemployment in the country.


Author(s):  
Michael E. Smith ◽  
Randolph R. Resor ◽  
Pradeep Patel

This analysis presents a methodology for measuring the efficiency of train dispatching as a product of three variables: (a) the type of train control system (measured by latency, defined here as the interval between occurrence of a schedule deviation and initiation of corrective action); (b) the physical capacity of the route (track kilometers per route kilometers); and (c) train minutes per route kilometer (a measure of both capacity and dispatcher competence). A mathematical relationship among these three variables is postulated, and a log-log regression analysis is used to develop coefficients that relate each of the three independent variables to dispatching efficiency. To do this, actual train-movement data and minimum train running times for 28 U.S. Class I railroad line segments are used. Results of the regression analysis indicate a statistically valid relationship among latency, track capacity, traffic volume, and dispatching effectiveness. Dispatching effectiveness, calculated by placing track kilometers per route kilometer, train minutes per route kilometer, and latency at their mean values, was 71.3 percent (the mean latency was about 17 min). At a latency of 3.5 min, average effectiveness is 81.3 percent. Examples of the trade-off between latency and effectiveness and between track capacity and effectiveness also can be calculated. For the average line, when latency is progressively reduced from the current value of 15 min to 3.5 min, dispatching effectiveness increases from 71.3 to 81.3 percent. When track kilometers per route kilometer are increased from the average value of 1.3 to 2.0 (double-tracking the entire railroad, holding all other values constant) dispatching effectiveness can be increased from 71.3 to 89.5 percent—a larger increase than that realized from a reduction in latency, but at much higher cost. To quantify the dollar benefits of such an increase in dispatching effectiveness for U.S. railroads, further analyses were carried out. Based on a previous study of Burlington Northern operations, train delay costs ranged from $163/hr to $266/hr. To simplify calculations, a value of $200/hr is used. According to U.S. railroad statistics, there are about 21 million train hours of traffic each year. Benefits available from installing communications-based train control are calculated in terms of additional train minutes per route kilometer available with an increase in dispatching effectiveness based on this analysis. Based on this analysis, it should be possible to save (1 − 0.713/0.813) or 12.3 percent of total train hours. The benefit of this would be $200 × 0.123 × 21 × 10 or $520 million annually. The Association of American Railroads has estimated the cost of positive train control for the entire U.S. railway network to be between $843 million and $1.1 billion.


Author(s):  
Donald Worster

Whoever made the dollar bill green had a right instinct. There is a connection, profound and yet so easy to ignore, between the money in our pocket and the green earth, though the connection is more than color. The dollar bill needs paper, which is to say it needs trees, just as our wealth in general derives from nature, from the forest, the earth and waters, the soil. That these are all limited and finite is easy to see, and so also must be wealth; it can never be unlimited, though it can be expanded and multiplied by human ingenuity. Somewhere on the dollar bill that message might be printed, a warning that you hold in your hand a piece of the limited earth that should be handled with respect: “In God we trust; on nature we must depend.” The public is beginning to understand that connection in at least a rudimentary way and to realize that taking better care of the earth will cost money, will lower the standard of living as it is conventionally defined, and will interfere with freedom of enterprise. By the evidence of opinion polls, something like three out of four Americans say they are ready to accept those costs, a remarkable development in our history. The same can be said for almost every other nation on earth, even the poorest, who are learning that, in their own long-term self-interest, the preservation of nature is a cost they ought to pay, though they may demand that the rich nations assume some of the cost. Having money in one’s pocket, no matter how green its color, is no longer the unexamined good it once was. Many have come to realize that wealth might be a kind of poverty. The human species, according to a team of Stanford biologists, is now consuming or destroying 40 percent of the net primary terrestrial production of the planet: that is nearly one half of all the energy fixed by photosynthesis on the land. We are harvesting it, drastically reorganizing it, or losing it through urbanization and desertification in order to support our growing numbers and even faster growing demands.


Author(s):  
Arash Aziminejad ◽  
Yan He

As the existing communication technologies which for about a decade have supported railway operations and the huge transition from conventional to modern communication-based signaling approach the extent of their performance capabilities, the railway industry strives to migrate to a proven solution aiming to support the new and diverse broadband services and reduce cost. Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio access technology has been globally accepted because of the unparalleled performance, off-the-shelf convenience, and well-developed standardization. An LTE solution, however, brings both the opportunities and challenges to a Data Communication System (DCS) underlying a Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) system. The presented research targets one of the main LTE deployment challenges; the spectrum availability. To cope with the increasing scarcity of spectrum resources, LTE/LTE-A has envisaged an extension to the unlicensed band which is already heavily populated with incompatible legacy systems such as the immensely popular Wi-Fi networks. In this paper, a design framework is established to dimension the LTE system according to the CBTC DCS sub-system level requirements. Furthermore, the LTE/Wi-Fi coexistence performance is evaluated and studied in a train control application’s context by using a Markov chain analysis approach.


2015 ◽  
Vol 713-715 ◽  
pp. 1427-1430
Author(s):  
Ping Zhang

Price is the main competition means in China's mobile communications market, scientific pricing methods and strategies are important issues must be resolved by operators. Meanwhile, the pricing strategy selection of service product is an important decision factor in mobile communication business marketing. Based on this, this paper through analyzing on the cost-plus pricing strategy, competition-oriented pricing strategy and customer-oriented pricing strategy, consider mobile communication enterprise pricing strategy should be selected according to their own environment and the different stages of the mobile service growth, so that pricing is more in line with the subjective wishes of the client, and favorable for long-term interests of the enterprise.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Arsuaga ◽  
Nerea Toledo ◽  
Igor Lopez ◽  
Marina Aguado

Railway systems have evolved considerably in the last years with the adoption of new communication technologies. Aiming to achieve a single European railway network, the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) emerged in Europe to substitute multiple and noninteroperable national railway communication systems. This system and its security strategies were designed in late 1990s. Recent works have identified vulnerabilities related to integrity, authenticity, availability, and confidentiality. In the context of defining effective countermeasures to mitigate potential vulnerabilities, these vulnerabilities have to be analysed. In this article we introduce a framework that attempts to challenge ERTMS security by evaluating the exploitability of these vulnerabilities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Curwen ◽  
Jason Whalley

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the current provision of high-speed data networks in the African continent, in particular taking into account both licences and launches related to long-term evolution (LTE). Design/methodology/approach An up-to-date underlying database of licences and launches relating to LTE in Africa has been compiled. There is also a review of the international operators that are playing a significant role in LTE provision. A number of individual country case studies are considered. Issues of corruption are addressed. Findings Africa is interesting because it has been a laggard in the development of high-speed data networks, but now finds itself in a position to leapfrog 3G technologies, and hence close the gap that had opened up compared to, for example, Europe and Asia. This process is effectively assisted by the lack of fixed-wire connectivity but has to take account of the difficulty of attracting the requisite investment. Research limitations/implications Databases relating to Africa are always difficult to compile. Originality/value Published work relating to mobile networks in Africa is not plentiful, and it is difficult to find relevant data in the public domain. A key aspect of the paper is that the database is entirely up-to-date.


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