Generating test scenarios based on real-world traces for ERTMS telecommunication subsystem evaluation

Abstract

The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) allows increasing the utilization of the track by using a wireless mobile technology, the GSM-R, for dynamic signaling and control of the trains. However, the GSM-R will become the bottleneck regarding the performance of the ERTMS due to the increase of both the trains' traffic, and the resources needed by all the applications that contribute to safety in rail transportation and to satisfaction of the users. In this context, it is necessary to develop the tools that will allow evaluating the impact on the GSM-R of the scenarios that could occur, but that are costly or difficult to test on real tracks. In this paper, we propose an approach that consists in using real-world traces of trains moving on ERTMS lines to build specific scenarios for evaluating the ERTMS telecommunication subsystem. In this way, we are able to guarantee that these evaluations are very realistic due to the fact that the train moves following the functional specification of ERTMS. Moreover, our approach is particularly interesting for the future of ERTMS since the same scenarios can be used to evaluate other prospective wireless mobile technologies that could replace the GSM-R, such as LTE. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.