Susceptibility of 4G Communications in Railway EM Environment

The railway sector has continuously offered new services to be attractive and face the competition of the other means of transports. In this context, providing access to the Internet on board trains could permit the passengers to optimize their time spent in the train. In France, the main railway operator aims to offer internet access in 90% of its trains by 2020. The current proposed solution is based on 4G communications, e.g., long-term evolution (LTE) between the train and the ground, and Wi-Fi inside the coaches. The LTE reception on the train would be ensured by an antenna on the train roof. However, the railway electromagnetic (EM) interferences produced by the contact losses between catenary and pantograph can affect the reception of the LTE signal. In this context, this paper presents a susceptibility analysis of the LTE communication in the presence of EM interferences representative of those observed on board trains.