Similarly to railway companies of neighbouring countries Hungarian railway companies (MÁV, GYESEV) introduce the more efficient so-called ERTMS system that paves the way to a competitive railroad service in Europe. The National Infocommunications Services Company launched a public procurement procedure within the framework of an EU tender in the topic „System integration and delivery of GSM-R system” for the creation of MÁV’s railway GSM-R communication network that will be able to serve the ETCS L2 Train Control System to be introduced later without modifications regarding radio technology, switch centres and the connecting landline transmission systems. The implementation of the GSM-R project creates the transparent communication platform of the ETCS L2 Train Control System to be introduced later as a link between the Hungarian railways and the European rail network. The chief contractor of the complex task was Kapsch CarrierCom and the MVM OVIT consortium, Fornax participated as a subcontractor.
The still ongoing project was launched in 2014, and after its successful go-live the system will be used by approximately 100 MÁV employees each day.
The new network will be capable of controlling railroad traffic on the Hungarian rail network, the operation and maintenance of the railway network, and it will provide the possibility of sound and data transfer services.
During the course of the project the experts deploy mobile towers and base stations next to the tracks in compliance with EU standards, replacing the former, much less efficient walky-talky communication. Consequently the employees responsible for the operation and maintenance of the network, transmission technicians, section hands, drivers and dispatchers will communicate via approximately 30 000 special phone devices over the company’s own network. The complete system will make the internal communication of employees much faster and more efficient, contributing to the improvement of organizational efficiency, and following the return of investment operation will be less costly in the long run. With the help of the GSM-R system MÁV can join the European GSM-R network, and foreign trains travelling in Hungary will be able to use the Hungarian GSM-R system.
The high level architecture of the system is shown on the figure below.
Fornax ICT contributes with four separate IT solutions to the Operating Support Systems area of the system and thereby to the success of the project. The company’s own product, Eventus supports the operation of the GSM-R network efficiently, managing fault repair, change management, maintenance, procurement and related tasks. The NI2 software provided by Fornax creates a technical directory for the network, both in the physical and in the logical sense. This includes all material assets, such as buildings, optical cables or transmission towers. OpenKM is a document handler software managing and version controlling all documentation related to the network. Finally, Graylog2 analyses logs created by software and hardware elements of the GSM-R network, and offers efficient queries in the data. By tracking software events it becomes possible to discover security events or problems arising from incorrect workings of the network, and to elaborate solution options.
Fornax’s complex system support comprising of the four software above complies with the business requirements of the European GSM-R network, and significantly contributes to the efficient operation of the Hungarian GSM-R system.
