Enabling Technologies for Interoperable GNSS Augmentation for Railway
The European railway industry is exploring innovative train positioning solutions using GNSS and GNSS augmentation to support on-board functions including Automatic Train Protection (ATP) and Automatic Train Operations (ATO) for future evolutions the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS).
The European GNSS Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is seen as a key enabler for future railway Safety of Life (SoL) services to protect users from feared events in the system (i.e., detection of satellite / ground segment fault conditions) and to provide bounding in the pseudorange domain of correction residuals and ionospheric residual error (for single frequency users), excluding impact of the local environment. Future services are expected to be quasi-independent of the user concept of operations, with a limited set of assumptions, allowing for use of GNSS augmentation in a technology-neutral manner. This would provide ERTMS on-board equipment manufacturers with the flexibility to integrate GNSS augmentation into their solutions without a high-level of prescription on the design of the on-board localisation equipment, hybridisation approach, etc.
The objective of this activity is to assess options for deviating safely from constraints imposed by SBAS standards with respect to critical parameters of the user receiver configuration space that may have a negative impact on the performance of the receiver in the railway environment; to investigate options and approaches for using COTS components / elements in a railway GNSS receiver chain, minimising the need for bespoke receiver and antenna development; to define candidate concepts based on a trade-off analysis of identified options; and to address technical feasibility and assessment of performances of candidate concepts through simulation.
The activity supports industry roadmap, de-risking the introduction of GNSS in ERTMS by addressing several key issues on the use of GNSS augmentation.
