Study of the Susceptibility of the GSM-R Communications Face to the Electromagnetic Interferences of the Rail Environment

The Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway (GSM-R) system is currently deployed in Europe in order to ensure the interoperability of the high-speed trains. Knowing that data related to control and command will be transmitted to trains through this communication system, the immunity of the GSM-R system against electromagnetic disturbances on board trains has to be certified. After a background about the GSM-R communication system, we will present in detail the typical disturbances that can affect this system in the railway environment. Significant differences between these disturbances and the test signals defined in the current European electromagnetic compatibility standards will be highlighted. The criteria that can be employed to evaluate the immunity of the GSM-R transmissions will then be discussed. Finally, new test signals and immunity test bench will be presented in order to expose the GSM-R transmissions to noise scenarios representative of the railway environment. Different immunity results will be presented and analyzed.