Infrabel signed a 15-year framework-agreement with Kapsch CarrierCom to conduct a groundbreaking project which will see the migration of the R99/TDM core network currently in operation to the new R4/VoIP solution.
“Our decision for Kapsch CarrierCom is based on our approach for a maximum of safety, punctuality and efficiency for our railway network. These three approaches run through all of our activities and projects. In addition, Kapsch is the main GSM-R core network supplier for main railway networks in Europe and proofed to be the perfect partner for a seamless migration to the Release 4 (R4) technology”, explains Vincent Caudron, GSM-R Expert at Infrabel.
Under the agreement Kapsch is responsible for the GSM-R and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Core Network migration from 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) R99 to Release 4 (R4) technology including network design, supply, installation and maintenance of the equipment for 12 years.
The R4 core network by Kapsch is a standards-compliant, carrier-grade, all-IP voice core solution based on advanced telecommunications computing architecture. In addition, it is compliant with the level 2 requirements of the ETCS level 2. Thus, it guarantees a continuous data transmission based on GSM-R and supports live ETCS level 2 traffic.
Kapsch says that the main challenge of this project is to optimize the migration process in order to minimize the risk in terms of impact on the operational communications (voice and data for ETCS level 2), taking into account that the number and the duration of the intervention timeframes are limited.
To tackle this challenge, Kapsch will implement Redundant Voice Core platforms with a full range of application services (SMS, Voice Recording, etc.) for both live and testbed networks. These platforms will significantly increase the availability of the core network. Whereas a breakdown in a datacenter currently implies an unavailability of several hours, the new system will only imply an unavailability of a few seconds. Moreover, the maintenance operations like software upgrade will be performed without or with very limited impact on the services. The migration of the packet core platforms will bring the required functionalities and resilience allowing the use of ETCS level 2 over GPRS.
Share on:
