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TECHNICAL REPORT
Rail Telecommunications (RT);
Next Generation Communication System;
LTE radio performance simulations and
evaluations in rail environment
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2 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
Reference
DTR/RT-0047
Keywords
LTE, railways
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3 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
Executive summary . 5
Introduction . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 References . 7
2.1 Normative references . 7
2.2 Informative references . 7
3 Abbreviations . 8
4 Assumptions and parameters for simulations and evaluations . 9
4.1 Introduction . 9
4.2 Simulation tools . 10
4.3 Scenarios . 10
4.4 Bandwidth and transmit power . 11
4.4.1 Bandwidths . 11
4.4.2 Transmit powers . 11
4.5 Antenna diagrams . 12
4.5.1 Antenna diagrams at the base station . 12
4.6 Radio propagation aspects . 12
4.6.1 Radio propagation model . 12
4.6.2 Conclusion . 13
4.7 Frequency reuse scheme . 14
4.8 Summary . 14
4.9 Outcomes of the simulations . 16
5 Simulation results . 16
5.1 Results set 1 . 16
5.1.1 Description . 16
5.1.2 Specific assumptions and parameters . 18
5.1.3 Results . 19
5.1.4 Notes and remarks . 21
5.2 Results set 2 . 22
5.2.1 Description . 22
5.2.1.1 Lab setup high level description . 22
5.2.1.2 Lab setup: 3GPP RF Channel Emulator . 23
5.2.1.3 Lab setup: FRMCS Traffic Generator and Analyzer. 24
5.2.2 Specific assumptions and parameters . 24
5.2.3 Results . 24
5.2.4 Notes and remarks . 24
5.3 Results set 3 . 24
5.3.1 Description . 24
5.3.2 Specific assumptions and parameters . 25
5.3.3 Results . 26
5.3.4 Notes and remarks . 27
6 Results evaluation . 28
6.1 Analysis . 28
6.1.1 General . 28
6.1.2 Overheads analysis . 28
6.1.2.1 General . 28
6.1.2.2 IP stack, PDCP and RLC overheads . 29
6.1.2.3 Physical layer overheads . 29
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4 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
6.1.2.4 Link-level comparison . 29
6.1.3 Train speed impact . 30
6.1.4 Neighbouring cells interference impact . 32
6.2 Identified system limitations . 32
7 Conclusion . 33
Annex A: Theoretical peak throughput for LTE . 34
Annex B: Throughput curves for simulation results set 1 . 35
Annex C: Data Throughput Measurements for results set 3 . 45
Annex D: Antenna diagrams . 47
Annex E: Change history . 53
History . 54
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5 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (https://ipr.etsi.org/).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Trademarks
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Foreword
This Technical Report (TR) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Railway Telecommunications (RT).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and "cannot" are to be
interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
Executive summary
In order to assess 3GPP LTE radio performance in a rail environment, three scenarios have been defined: Rural, Hilly
and Urban, representing various radio conditions typical to rail environment. Each scenario has been defined with its
radio parameters, load condition and train speeds.
UIC and E-UIC spectrum bands have been assumed, with bandwidth of 1,4 MHz, 3 MHz and 5 MHz, corresponding to
possible deployments with LTE and GSM-R co-existence and deployment with a standalone LTE.
Three different studies are described. One is based on simulation with a software chain tool using a Monte-Carlo
statistical approach, including multiple cells in a linear deployment along the track. The two others are based on
laboratory radio test bench, featuring hardware communication devices and wireless channel emulators, but not taking
into account multiple cells interferences.
The present document includes results from software chain tool study and from one of the two laboratory radio test
bench study.
In the present document, only results for LTE using a channel bandwidth of 1,4 MHz with maximum UE power of
23 dBm in the 900 MHz band are provided. A set of initial conclusions has been drawn from these partial results;
however a final conclusion will need the completion of the analysis with results for 3 MHz and 5 MHz channel
bandwidths and for maximum UE powers of 26 and 31 dBm. Furthermore, the impact of using a TDD mode in other
frequency bands will need to be added to the report.
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6 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
Introduction
The present document outlines the study conducted within TC RT on LTE radio performance simulations and
evaluations in rail environment.
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7 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
1 Scope
3GPP LTE radio access is one candidate for the radio access technology to be used for the Future Rail Mobile
Communications System (FRMCS). In the present document, the term FRMCS refers -unless stated otherwise- to the
radio part of the communication system.
The present document is intended to:
• Define the simulation parameters relevant to rail environment relating to 3GPP LTE radio performance. This
includes in particular operating frequency bands, bandwidths, deployment scenario (inter-site distance), and
antenna characteristics, transmit powers and channel models, along with relevant metrics to be evaluated.
• Collect and analyse the simulation results of an LTE system in the rail environment.
• Identify limitations of an LTE system in the rail environment.
Radio performance evaluation of an LTE system could be done by simulation, through software and processing
resources only, or through a test bench incorporating pieces of equipment emulating parts of the chain, e.g. the RF. In
both cases, it is important to align the parameters and the assumptions made in the simulation and in the evaluation
chain to be able to reflect better a deployment in a rail environment, and to better compare and understand the
simulation and the evaluation results.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
Normative references are not applicable in the present document.
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
[i.1] ETSI TS 145 005 (V14.4.0) (04-2018): "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+)
(GSM); GSM/EDGE Radio transmission and reception (3GPP TS 45.005 version 14.4.0
Release 14)".
[i.2] ETSI TS 136 104 (V14.7.0) (04-2018): "LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
(E-UTRA); Base Station (BS) radio transmission and reception (3GPP TS 36.104 version 14.7.0
Release 14)".
[i.3] ETSI TS 136 101 (V14.7.0) (04-2018): "LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
(E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception (3GPP TS 36.101
version 14.7.0 Release 14)".
[i.4] Recommendation ITU-R M.2135-1 (12-2009): "Guidelines for evaluation of radio interface
technologies for IMT advanced".
[i.5] IST-4-027756 Winner II D1.1.2 V1.2 Winner II Part I: "Channel Models", European Commission,
Deliverable IST-WINNER D.
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8 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
[i.6] Ikuno, J. Colom, Martin Wrulich, and Markus Rupp.: "Performance and modelling of LTE
H-ARQ." Proc. International ITG Workshop on Smart Antennas (WSA 2009), Berlin, Germany
2009.
[i.7] ETSI TS 136 211 (V14.6.0) (04-2018): "LTE; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
(E-UTRA); Physical channels and modulation (3GPP TS 36.211 version 14.6.0 Release 14)".
[i.8] Recommendation ITU-R M.1225 (1997): "Guidelines for evaluation of radio transmission
technologies for IMT-2000".
[i.9] European Integrated Railway Radio Enhanced Network System Requirements Specification,
UIC CODE 951, GSM-R Operators Group, December 2015.
3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
ACS Adjacent Channel Selectivity
AMC Adaptive Modulation and Coding
AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise
BS Base Station
BTS Base Transceiver Station
BW Bandwidth
CDF Cumulative Distribution Function
CDL Clustered Delay Line
COST Cooperation of Scientific and Technical
CP Cyclic Prefix
DL Down Link
EIRENE European Integrated Railway radio Enhanced NEtwork
eNB evolved Node B
ETU Extended Typical Urban model
E-UTRA Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
FDD Frequency Division Duplex
FEC Forward Error Correction
FRMCS Future Rail Mobile Communications System
FSTD Frequency Switched Transmit Diversity
GSM Global System for Mobile communications
GSM-R Global System for Mobile communication for Railway application
HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat-Request
HO Hand Over
HST High Speed Train
IMT International Mobile Telecommunications
IP Internet Protocol
ISD Inter Site Distance
ISI Inter-Symbol Interference
ITU-R Internail Telecommunication Union - Radiocommunication sector
LOS Line Of Sight
LTE Long Term Evolution
MAC Media Access Control
MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme
MIMO Multiple Input, Multiple Output
MISO Multiple Input, Single Output
MOS Mean Opinion Score
MRS Mobile Relay Station
NLOS Non Line Of Sight
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel
PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol
PDP Power Delay Profile
PER Packet Error Rate
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9 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
PHY PHYsical layer
PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QCI QoS Class Identifier
RB Resource Block
REC Railways Emergency Call
RF Radio Frequency
RLC Radio Link Control
RT Rail Telecommunications
SFBC Space-Frequency Block Coding
SGW Serving Gateway
SIMO Single Input, Multiple Output
SINR Signal to Interference-plus-Noise Ratio
SISO Single Input, Single Output
SNR Signal to Noise Ratio
SRS System Requirement Specification
TC Technical Committee
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
TDD Time Duplex Division
UDP User Datagram Protocol
UE User Equipment
UIC Union Internationale des Chemins de fer
UL Up Link
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
USB Universal Serial Bus
4 Assumptions and parameters for simulations and
evaluations
4.1 Introduction
In the scope of this study, the following points are addressed:
• Simulations take into account railway specifics
• Simulations are flexible in order to simulate different system configurations, parameter settings and scenarios
• Consideration of different carrier band-widths (at least 1,4, 3 and 5 MHz)
• Consideration of TDD and FDD duplex modes
• Consideration of different subscriber and train densities and distributions
• Considerations of FRMCS system parameters (e.g. Cyclic Prefix)
• Different power classes of FRMCS equipment
• Different antenna radiation patterns and tilts
• SISO, SIMO, MISO und MIMO
• Different installation heights of antennas
• Different distances and densities of fixed transmitter equipment (eNB)
• Different specified and appropriate coding and modulation schemes
• Different 3GPP Releases (e.g. LTE: ≥ 13) to take into account new features, e.g. performance improvements
for high speed.
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10 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
4.2 Simulation tools
Software simulations are made at radio level, i.e. above the physical layer as depicted in Figure 1. Overheads like pilots
and cyclic prefixes are taken in to account, but not the overheads that are added by layers above PHY, in particular
PDCP and IP headers.
Other simulations, e.g. hardware simulations and laboratory tests, could have a reference point at application level.
UE
Hardware simulation and laboratory test
reference point
Application Application
Upper Core Network
BS
layers
PDCP PDCP
RLC RLC
MAC MAC
Software simulation
reference point
PHY PHY
RF RF
Figure 1: Reference point for the software simulations
4.3 Scenarios
The objective is to define the minimum number of scenarios which cover the majority of the radio environment.
Three scenarios have been retained: Urban, Rural, and Hilly. Urban is relative to areas where train density is high, but
move at moderate speed. Rural scenario typically intends to model high speed lines. Hilly scenario intends to handle
more complex situations from radio propagation point of view, with in particular extensive multi-path propagation.
Tunnels are complex scenarios, since they depend widely on tunnel shape and tunnel/train relative geometry. They are
not considered in this study as they would require a more long and thorough work.
Only train-ground communications are considered in this study. Handset or shunting area scenarios are for further
study.
Whether it is possible to have several antennas on trains roof tops and what could be their characteristic needs further
discussions.
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11 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
4.4 Bandwidth and transmit power
4.4.1 Bandwidths
Three scenarios are considered, on bandwidths of 1,4 MHz, 3 MHz and 5 MHz in the UIC and E-UIC bands, as
depicted in Figure 2:
1) Scenario 1 considers GSM-R in UIC band as per today, with the addition of a 1,4 MHz LTE carrier in the
upper part of E-UIC band. This scenario corresponds to a migration phase, with co-existence of both GSM-R
and LTE systems.
2) Scenario 2 assumes is an extension of scenario 1 with a LTE carrier extended to 3 MHz in the E-UIC band.
3) Scenario 3 assumes a deployment with no GSM-Rand one LTE 5 MHz carrier in UIC band, overlapping the
E-UIC band.
E-UIC band UIC band
DL
918 919.5 920.9 921 925
(MHz)
Scenario 1: Co-existence with GSM-R
LTE 1.4 MHz GSM-R
UL
873 874.5 875.9 876 880
(MHz)
DL
918 921 925
(MHz)
Scenario 2: Co-existence with GSM-R
LTE 3 MHz
GSM-R
and extented LTE carrier
UL
873 876 880
(MHz)
DL
918 920 925
(MHz)
LTE 5 MHz Scenario 3: Overlapping LTE carrier
UL
873 875 880
(MHz)
Figure 2: Carriers and bandwidths in the deployment scenarios considered
Scenario 1 is of highest priority.
4.4.2 Transmit powers
Transmit power in the E-UIC band is subject to limitations in case of FRMCS system deployment uncoordinated with
commercial systems operating in neighbouring bands.
The method to compute the maximum transmit power derives the impact from the adjacent channel selectivity related
specifications (wideband blocking and narrow band blocking), takes into account applicable effects (0,8 dB
desensitization, slope of the filtering, etc.) as well as corrections resulting from spurious emissions from base station
transmission and from UE. ACS (Adjacent Channel Selectivity) has been found as not relevant for this study.
Summary of the acceptable maximum transmit power of a FRMCS system in case of uncoordinated deployment is
shown in Table 1.
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Table 1: FRMCS acceptable transmitted power at eNB connector taking into account
impact of BS Tx spurious emissions and Noise Rise from UE
FRMCS 1,4 MHz channel centre
918,7 920,3
frequency (MHz)
Standard under consideration in
Multi- Multi-
UMTS LTE UMTS LTE
adjacent bands Standard Standard
FRMCS acceptable Tx power (dBm) 24,2 22,2 22,2 48,8 45,8 48,8
In coordinated scenario, the maximum transmit power at 918,7 MHz can be the same than at 920,3 MHz.
4.5 Antenna diagrams
4.5.1 Antenna diagrams at the base station
Different types of antennas are deployed depending on the area. For the study, two different antennas are selected: One
with a horizontal beam angle of 65°, devoted to Non Line Of Sight (NLOS) situations - typically hilly terrains and
urban areas, and one more directive, with a horizontal beam angle of 30°, more suited to Line Of Sight (LOS) situations
- typically rural areas.
Antenna characteristics are summarized in Table 2 and an extended description is provided in Annex D.
Table 2: Summary of base station antenna patterns
Horizontal Vertical Gain Polarization Usage
Polarization Polarization
65° 7° 18 dB ±45° NLOS
30° 8,5° 20,5 dB ±45° LOS/NLOS
4.6 Radio propagation aspects
4.6.1 Radio propagation model
Simulations have to be based on railway specific time-variant channel impulse responses of the radio channel in order
to take into account multi-path radio propagation and Doppler-effects.
Four families of standards have been considered:
1) Okumura-Hata, Cost 207-GSM, COST 231 models and GSM specified models (see [i.1])
2) ITU-R 1997 for IMT 2000 (see [i.8]) and LTE specified scenarios (see [i.2] and [i.3])
3) ITU-R for IMT advanced (see [i.4])
4) Winner II (see [i.5])
Recent propagation models and multipath profiles have been aimed at being used for wireless systems with a small or
medium range. This is coherent since 3G and 4G standards have been developed for capacity rather than for coverage.
Early defined models such as COST 207 or 231 were derived at a time when coverage was the main priority rather than
high speed operation which is of particular significance within the scope of this study.
Most relevant parameters in rail environment are then:
• Frequency range
• Delays in Cluster Delay Line models
• Geometry, most of models are considering 1,5 m for handheld User Equipment
• Inter Site Distances (ISD)
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13 ETSI TR 103 554 V1.1.1 (2018-08)
• LOS scenarios are using Ricean factor with high domination of the direct path
Characteristics of models are summarized in the following Table 3, discrepancies are highlighted in red.
Table 3: Summary of model characteristics
Railway Okumura-Hata, ITU-R ITU-R IMT Winner II
current COST 207- IMT 2000 advanced
GSM
...