Nokia to Test 5G-based Network for Automated Rail Operation

Finnish telecom major Nokia has announced that it has won a tender to test and deliver the world’s first standalone (SA) 5G system for automated rail operation in Hamburg. The project is part of Deutsche Bahn’s highly automated S-Bahn operation project. The proofof-concept will test whether the 5G technology is mature enough to be used as the connectivity layer for future, digitalized rail operations. The project constitutes an early and important step in the development of the 5G-based Future Railway Mobile Communications System (FRMCS), a successor to the GSM-R standard that already supports communications between trains and control centers in Germany.

The Nokia solution is based on 3GPP standards for 5G mobile networks, allowing highly or fully automated trains to exchange relevant data with trackside equipment through 5G radio. This will have positive effects on cross-border operation, capacity of rail infrastructure, punctuality of trains and also on customer experience, the company stated in a press release.

By 2021, as part of the project ‘ Digitale S-Bahn Hamburg’, highly automated trains—with train drivers on board for safety responsibility—are expected to operate on a 23-kilometer section of the S-Bahn Line 21, starting at Berliner Tor, one of the main transport hubs in Hamburg. According to Nokia, part of the demonstration will include fully driverless shunting of empty trains in an area near Bergedorf station, based on the transmission of train control information over the Nokia 5G mobile network.