Radiolabs is partner of S5LECT – SatCom and 5G Link Edge, Cyber telecommunication – the new project selected by EUSPA to unlock the potential arising from the hybridization of terrestrial and satellite communications networks for railway critical applications. The project – coordinated by SNCF and involving also Railenium, GTS France (THALES) and CEIT – will contribute to the economical and environmental sustainability of the new telecom solutions for the transition from the actual GSM-R to the new FRMCS standard of the ERTMS. The novelty is the complementary of 5G and LEO satcom to realize a seamless one-stop shop solution minimizing the deployment of terrestrial infrastructures.
The partners of S5LECT will develop and experiment a solution compliant with the requirements of railway applications combining 5G terrestrial networks with EU GOVSATCOM satellite and in perspective IRIS-2 services – the initiative promoted by European Commission to ensure secure, autonomous high-quality, reliable & cost-effective satellite communication for critical infrastructures. Synergies with the telecom solutions being developed for the connected and autonomous cars will be assessed due to the similarity with rail applications and its potential to benefit from a mass-market demand being advanced connectivity the 2nd top priority to enable autonomous car driving.
S5LECT will assess the cybersecurity risks for the hybridization of public terrestrial and satellite networks, proposing solutions to strengthen the communication link resiliency. Edge Computing solutions for the railway applications will also be analysed for their contribution to reduce latency that is a key parameter for the train control systems. Most importantly a novel Testing Laboratory based on real systems and emulation at IP level will be developed to assess the achievable performance while reducing the need of field tests.
S5LECT represents a further step forward in the roadmap of Radiolabs who has pioneered since 2012 a radio telecommunication solution based on the combination of SatCom and Cellular networks for the ERTMS level 2 with the 3InSat and the ERSAT EAV projects, funded respectively by ASI-ESA and EUSPA. Further contributions to S5LECT are the results of the AB4RAIL project commissioned to Radiolabs by the Shift2Ral Joint Undertaking for the study and assessment of the suitability of alternative telecom bearers and communication protocols for the Adaptable Communication System (ACS) in line with the FRMCS standard and the achievements in the automotive domain with the flagship project EMERGE.
