Independently on the business case addressed, one of the main drawbacks of the railway use cases that need continuous Global Navigation Satellite Systems data is the lack of availability for the 100% of the time of the journey. Additionally, the integrity assessment of the position estimation given is also mandatory for safety critical applications. Thus, tunnels and multipath effects are one of the most challenging situations for the continuous positioning systems. In this context, an autonomous on-board Complementary Positioning System has been proposed to overcome the limitation of Global Navigation Satellite System based positioning systems. This paper proposes a positioning enhancement solution by means of fusing data from the satellite navigation system and inertial measurement units. That hybrid solution provides higher availability and accuracy to the positioning specially on known blocked scenarios, such as tunnels, or urban canyons, by means of a novel environment aware map aided software technique named Known Blocked Scenarios algorithm. This paper describes the Complementary Positioning System and the field test carried out in a challenging environment to validate the enhancement proposed by the authors, which demonstrate the benefits that this system has in known harsh environments for railways.

Railway applications are in continuous evolution with the aim of offering a more efficient, sustainable, and safer transportation system for the users. Generally, these applications are constantly exchanging information between the systems onboard the train and the trackside through a wireless communication. Nowadays, Global System for Mobile communications-Railway (GSM-R) is the technology used by European Train Control System (ETCS), but it is becoming obsolete. Therefore, alternatives for this technology have to be found for the different railway applications. Its natural evolution is to move forward with the latest technology deployed: Long-Term Evolution (LTE), which the Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN) have already deployed. Therefore, testing the performance of this communication technology in the railway environment could be useful to assess its suitability and reduce the cost of railway network dedicated deployment. In order to do that, a methodology to characterize the communication environment is proposed. The main goal is to measure geolocated impairments of any communication channel in a railway environment being able to determine its behavior of the different communication technologies and find out possible coverage issues. Moreover, it could help in the selection of suitable communication technology for railway. This paper presents a brief description of the communication for railways and its QoS parameters for performance measuring. Afterward, the testing methodology is described, and then, the communication channel measurement campaign on a real track in Spain where the railway environment is variable is presented (tunnels, rural/urban area…). Finally, the measurements and results on this real track in Spain are shown. The results provide suitability of the 4G technologies based on the delay requirements for the implementation of ETCS over it.

5G is a new technology that can provide more services, due to the improvement in performance, than the current mobile technologies. Because of that, it is selected as a possible technology for automotive transportation systems. Nevertheless, nowadays the 5G technology is in the deployment phase, which could present bugs requiring improvements in the network. Therefore, a tool capable of measuring some of the most relevant features of the 5G, as some of the requirements for the transportation system, is presented. The measurements with the specified tool were carried out in a specific line from the bus company in the San Sebastian city center with the aim of finding out the services that could be improved. Afterward, the results from the different measurements are shown, compared, and discussed. Finally, some conclusions about the obtained results and the services to use the target technology are presented.

The limitations of the existing Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) integrated with Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) have presented significant challenges in meeting the stringent demands of precision maneuvering. The identified constraints in terms of accuracy and availability have required the development of an alternative solution to enhance the performance of navigation systems in dynamic and diverse environments. This paper summarizes the research regarding the integration of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology as an augmentation of the conventional GNSS+IMU system; it proposes an approach that aims to overcome the limitations of conventional navigation systems. By making use of UWB technology, the proposed low-cost UWB-augmented GNSS+IMU system not only fulfils the required performance standards but also offers the unique capability to navigate seamlessly across indoor and outdoor environments. The developed system was validated through comprehensive testing and analysis in both the automotive and maritime sectors. The obtained results highlight the system’s capacity as a dependable and resilient solution for precise navigation, and they promote its use within the domain of accurate maneuvering.

Communication technologies are in continuous evolution and as well, the different applications making use of them. In order to succeed with the roll-out of the communication-based applications, it is required that the communications technologies are intensively tested and validated before deployment. Current strategies for testing and validation cover field tests and laboratory tests. Railways is also taking advantage of the communication technologies evolution, and therefore, there is a need for having testing and validation strategies adapted to the railway environment, especially for safety-critical applications. Field tests and laboratory tests also apply in Railways. In the frame of laboratory tests, this paper includes an overview of different network emulators existing currently in the market. Furthermore, an analysis of the gaps of the network emulators with regards to the needs of the railways environment is also included. The goal of this paper is to show that network emulators are a flexible cost-effective solution for communication technologies testing purposes. Additionally, this paper also shows that there is a need to adapt current emulators to the railway environment in order to test and validate the future railway applications based on communication technologies.