Terms of Reference for Technical Committee (TC) Rail Telecommunications (RT)

Revised at ETSI Board#111,  Date: 02/17

1.    Scope

The Technical Committee Rail Telecommunications is the "home" for those telecommunication aspects of rail transportation, which are not part of the specification of the current mobile communication technologies themselves.

TC RT will ensure responsibility in the area of GSM-R, in particular:

• develop and maintain ETSI standards related to GSM-R as required by the applicable European Legislation.

TC RT will ensure responsibility related to development and maintenance of ETSI standards for Next Generation Radio for Rail (NG2R), in particular:

• collect requirements from relevant stakeholders from the Rail Transportation domain, including urban, suburban, regional, long distance for Professional Mobile Radio Access systems.
• provide standards for voice, data services and other applications over broadband and narrowband air interfaces for the Rail Transportation domain.
• identify any spectrum needs for the Next Generation Radio for Rail System and propose appropriate solutions.
• ensure that the work programme within ETSI TC RT is co-ordinated with other ETSI Technical Bodies, European and International Standardisation Bodies to avoid duplication of deliverables.

2.    Organisation and working methods 

TC RT shall work in accordance with the ETSI Directives and, in particular, the Technical Working Procedures. 

The work of TC RT shall depend upon effective co-operation and liaison with other groups. Some typical examples of co-operation and liaison are 3GPP, TC TCCE for Critical Communications matters, TC ERM for spectrum and EMC matters, TC RRS for Reconfigurable Radio Systems /Software Defined Radio solutions, TC ITS for Intelligent Transport Systems, TC SAGE and TC CYBER for security matters, TC SES for satellite communication matters.

TC RT will co-operate and liaise with the UIC Future Radio Mobile Communications System (FRMCS) Project, the European Union Agency for Railways, the TCCA, OneM2M Partnership Project, Union Internationale des Transports Publics (UITP) and the 5G organisations. TC RT will liaise with other external organizations where relevant. 

3.    Participation

Participation in TC RT is open to all ETSI members in accordance with the Technical Working Procedures. Observers and non-members may participate at the discretion of the Chairman in line with clause 1.4 of the Technical Working Procedures.