The Future of FRMCS-driven Railway Digitalization

[Bangkok, Thailand, May 11, 2022] Huawei released the Future Railway Mobile Communication System White Paper at Asia Pacific Rail 2022 and Huawei Global Rail Summit 2022. This white paper expounds the necessity of and approaches to leveraging the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) to drive the digital transformation of railway transportation from the perspectives of industry trends, spectrum selection, networking architecture, and key wireless technologies, providing significant references to the planning and construction of the future mobile communication systems for railways.

Xiang Xi, Vice President of the Global Transportation Business Dept of Huawei Enterprise BG, released the Future Railway Mobile Communication System White Paper at the Asia-Pacific Rail Summit.

Current narrowband networks (typified by GSM-R) cannot meet the requirements of railway digital transformation for supporting more services due to their insufficient bandwidth and complex networking. In contrast, FRMCS, based on broadband, is rising with unstoppable momentum as it can carry more services. To promote the standardization of railway communication systems, the International Union of Railways (UIC) released the User Requirements Specification (URS) v4.0.0 in January 2019. At the same time, the first versions of the Functional Requirement Specification (FRS) and System Requirements Specification (SRS) were being drafted. In line with FRMCS standards, Huawei released the Future Railway Mobile Communication System White Paper based on its decades of experience in wireless networks. The white paper analyzes how FRMCS will help address the problems the rail industry is facing during mobile communication upgrade and puts forward constructive suggestions and ideas for digital transformation.

As the first digital wireless communications system introduced to boost railway transportation, GSM-R can no longer support the increasing service demands of the industry, said Zhang Jianjun, Director of Huawei Wireless Marketing & Solutions Sales Dept. Its ecosystem is facing a decline in certainty, and its technologies are already outdated. To address these customer concerns, Huawei has proposed the 5G-oriented FRMCS solution to help the industry upgrade wireless communications systems, taking into consideration technology evolution, ecosystem, and cost.

Huawei is ready to work with industry partners to build a future railway wireless communications network with high bandwidth and low latency to protect key railway services, and promote FRMCS to become the next successful global train-to-ground wireless communications solution.