Application of Nortel GSM-R in the Construction of Qinghai-Tibet Railway

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Application of Nortel GSM-R in the Construction of Qinghai-Tibet Railway [Copy link]

The Ministry of Railways of China is the manager and operator of China's railway transportation and an important part of the national government. In 2002, after long-term and repeated demonstrations, the Ministry of Railways decided to choose GSM-R as the railway dedicated communication system to serve railway transportation.

　　The construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a landmark project in the development of western China. It is currently the highest plateau railway in the world with the longest route and the longest mileage through frozen soil. In 2001, the central government decided to invest 26.21 billion yuan to build a 1,142-kilometer railway from Golmud, Qinghai to Lhasa, Tibet. The Qinghai-Tibet Railway under construction crosses 960 kilometers of areas above 4,000 meters above sea level. The highest point is the Tanggula Mountain Pass at an altitude of 5,072 meters. The average altitude is 4,500 meters and it crosses more than 550 kilometers of permafrost. In order to build the Qinghai-Tibet line into a world-class railway, the Ministry of Railways decided to use the GSM-R system, which is currently the only system that can carry train control information, to achieve effective control of trains, thereby improving railway transportation efficiency and reducing operating costs.

　　Nortel is a leader in the GSM-R market and technology, with more than 60% of the GSM-R market share. It has successfully deployed GSM-R systems for major European railway organizations and successfully put them into commercial use. In order to support the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and demonstrate its strong strength in the GSM-R field, Nortel proposed a plan to conduct GSM-R tests on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to the Ministry of Railways in October 2003. In March 2004, the Ministry of Railways decided to select Nortel equipment for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway GSM-R test. The test section starts from Golmud and ends at Budongquan. The line is 186 kilometers long and a total of 65 BTSs, 2 BSCs, 1 MSC, and 1 intelligent network system are deployed. The construction and testing of the test section began in July 2004.

　　The Qinghai-Tibet Railway Golmud to Budongquan GSM-R test project is a unique project for Nortel, and the significance of the test is very significant. First, it is the first GSM-R test conducted in other parts of the world since the commercial use of the railway GSM-R network in Europe. Second, the Ministry of Railways has set high technical requirements for this test. The test has pioneered wireless communication in China's railways and is responsible for providing basic data for the formulation of China's GSM-R technical standards, engineering design and construction. Third, Nortel has provided the latest GSM-R scientific and technological achievements independently developed in this test in cooperation with the Ministry of Railways, including the industry's first application of wireless network double-layer coverage and other technologies. Fourth, it is a comprehensive GSM-R test conducted on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the roof of the world. The test section of the railway line is 2,800 meters to 4,780 meters above sea level. The special natural environment and climatic conditions of the plateau have posed great challenges to equipment operation, engineering test operations, and personnel health protection. Fifth, the requirements for cooperating with construction units, multiple design and scientific research units, construction units, and terminal equipment manufacturers determine the special project management environment of the GSM-R test.

　　Nortel attaches great importance to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway GSM-R test. The company organized a division of labor among institutions in three major regions, North America, Europe and China, to complete the system's research and development and engineering design. Senior technical personnel from four specialties, namely switching system, base station system, intelligent network and wireless network optimization, were sent to the site for a long time to lead the team to conduct equipment commissioning and test, and closely cooperate with the various tasks of the test working group of the Ministry of Railways. For the newly introduced equipment and technology, some test cases and analysis work were directly undertaken by Nortel's main experts in France, Germany, the United States and Canada. During the first part of the second phase of the GSM-R network function test (June to early August 2004), which had the highest level of manpower investment, the number of Nortel technical personnel working on site in Xining and Golmud reached more than 50, including nearly 10 foreign experts.

　　Nortel's GSM-R test network on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, like other new technical equipment put into engineering application, has to deal with many specific problems. For example, the network system must meet the needs of adapting to the unique business functions of China's railways, the technical indicators must meet the stability of the values under large sample size tests, and the technical compatibility issues between the network system and terminal equipment of multiple manufacturers must be effectively resolved, and the difficulties of insufficient experience and data in plateau engineering design must be overcome. In addition, the technology transfer and training of foreign experts to local personnel also requires a process. Each professional group held small lectures and arranged rotation operations according to local conditions, and jointly analyzed and discussed problems. Throughout the test work, the project team kept in touch with the support departments in Beijing, Europe and North America at any time, held regular telephone conferences, updated the project status in a timely manner, and formulated problem solutions.

　　The actual difficulties and challenges in the Qinghai-Tibet Railway GSM-R test are incomparable to Nortel's other public GSM and CDMA wireless projects. However, these difficulties have never made Nortel's Chinese and foreign employees retreat. On the contrary, they are optimistic and tenacious, do not complain about the harsh environment, and are not afraid of technical difficulties. Everyone strives to achieve the highest quality of work and deliver the best work results to customers. The innovative practice that leads railway communication technology into a new stage of development inspires everyone among them and creates a team atmosphere of unity, mutual trust and progress. The pioneering GSM-R test on the roof of the world will surely be recorded in the history of China's railway modernization.

　　Under the guidance of the Ministry of Railways and Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company and with the full cooperation of the Engineering Bureau, with the support of Nortel management and the joint efforts of the project team, the GSM-R switches, base station controllers and intelligent business controllers in Xining and Golmud were put into operation in June 2004. On June 19, 2004, Liu Zhijun, Minister of Railways, made the first GSM-R call in China. On September 23, all 64 base stations at 32 sites from Golmud to Budongquan were put into operation, followed by more than half a year of trial work. The test shows that the function, transmission quality and field strength coverage of Nortel's GSM-R system have met the design requirements; the experimental network equipment operates well, the network service quality meets the system requirements and relevant technical conditions, and the interface and communication with the terminal equipment are smooth and meet the use requirements; the Nortel GSM-R system and the dispatching communication system have achieved an organic combination, realizing the wired and wireless integrated dispatching communication system functions, which meets the technical requirements of the Ministry of Railways; Nortel's GSM-R equipment adapts to the special natural environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and has withstood the harsh test of high cold, high altitude and low pressure, and has extremely high reliability.

　　The outstanding achievements made in the test section once again prove Nortel's leading position in the GSM-R market and technology. In March 2005, the Ministry of Railways selected Nortel's equipment to deploy the GSM-R network of the Golmud section (Golmud-Lhasa) of the Qinghai-Tibet Line. After the network is deployed, the 1,142-kilometer Qinghai-Tibet Railway will be the first railway in China to be fully supported by the GSM-R railway wireless communication system, without the need for a traditional analog system as a backup. It is also the first time that China's railways have adopted the GSM-R network to transmit safety data for train control, and the first GSM-R network to use GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) data applications. In addition, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has pioneered the trend of GSM-R dual-network construction and is the first to adopt a dual-network coverage solution to ensure system security, reliability and practicality.