Future Railways Mobile Communications Systems Solutions

Project description

The UIC FRMCS project aims at defining the successor of GSM-R, a successful system selected in the 90s out of existing technologies, as the basis of the new European Railways Digital Radio System.
As GSM-R is based on public GSM standard, the same constraints on technical life cycle apply, so that GSM-R support is expected up to year 2030 at least (according to the official information provided by GSM-R suppliers).
Taking into account an expected period of at least 10 years to define all the technical details for the successor and complete the migration concept, the changes in TSI and the legislative work for Europe, UIC started the first investigations on the GSM-R inheritor in 2010 with more refined details and a solid work programme structure from Jan 2014, within a three years UIC funded project.

During the initial phase of the European project, clear needs of participation from members out of Europe popped up. In addition, synergies with other stakeholders such as urban transport organizations and Tetra and Critical Communications Association (TCCA) was considered.
This first phase of FRMCS was in line with the UIC strategy of building up and strengthening harmonized Railway radio communications systems in Europe, keeping the pace with the technological advance, while preserving interoperability and protecting Railways investments.
The second phase of the development of the new radio system, as it is already the case for the GSM-R, must be managed in a Worldwide environment and shall be based on relevant world standardization bodies, notably: ETSI, 3GPP and ITU.