Construction of nationwide comms network – Part 3 – VHF radio upgrade

Customer: PKP Railways
Location: Poland
Partners: Nokia / ATDI / FONON / Spc2

Challenges:

A consortium of organisations was awarded a contract by PKP, the Polish rail infrastructure organisation, to deploy a nationwide turnkey GSM-R network and mission-critical backhaul network to improve railway security and reliability.

VHF radio upgrade
In conjunction with EGIS Consulting, ATDI planned two VHF 150MHz radio networks; the first for the modernisation of the line from Chabówka to Nowy Sącz, Poland and the second for a radio network plan for a new line from Podłęże – Szczyrzyc – Tymbark / Mszana Dolna, Poland.  

The project demanded the collection and modification of map data for areas of interest, as designated by PKP. This was to ensure that areas of outstanding beauty or nature conservation were not impacted by the network infrastructure. 

Approach:
The two VHF networks formed part of a country-wide digital GSM-R network. The network plans included:

-             site locations and parameters for the base stations; 

-             optimal locations for base stations and their associated parameters. 

As both radio networks formed part of the same rail network, ATDI collocated base stations to support both systems to minimise the equipment and construction costs. The rail network covers over 100km and includes 13 tunnels, including a leaky feeder system. ATDI modelled coverage for each tunnel in the network, including the leaky feeder system.

Solution
The main design tasks included:

• design of the GSM-R network for each railway section, including interference analysis and the channel planning, handover analysis, and the Best Server analysis. Network coverage and capacity were also considered;
• design of indoor coverage for the tunnels including the Leaky Feeder system;
• prepare high-resolution map data;
• consider changes to the buildings and land developments for the newly planned segments;
• ensure the network plans complied with the end user’s requirement to protect special areas;
• create a plan of the PKP infrastructure, including an independent model for each tunnel;
• select suitable calculation methods and boundary conditions;
• identify appropriate parameters for the devices;
• execute the link budgets;
• optimise the network to ensure it achieves the required range including inside selected buildings.

About the Partners
EGIS Consulting specialises in infrastructure for transport, municipalities, environmental protection and the construction industry. Specifically, they manage large projects for the road and rail sectors from design through to construction. EGIS employ consultants with extensive experience in engineering, economics and finance. https://www.egis-group.com