Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) for railways (the journey from GSM-R to 5G) and cybersecurity considerations

5G offers a major opportunity for rail operators to transform their operations for the better. Its high speed and extreme traffic handling capacity, together with ultra-low response times, highest reliability and support for massive machine type communication (IoT), will allow rail networks to improve safety, optimize costs and make their services more attractive to passengers in many ways. Such capabilities will make the telecommunication network the cornerstone of railways’ ambitions for further digitization and automation. With the Future Railway Mobile Communications System due to replace GSM-R and other legacy systems, rail operators can begin to plan early how they will prepare and migrate their networks to take advantage of 5G - the leading mobile technology that will serve the world far into the future. Rail networks, like all types of critical infrastructure, are under attack from a variety of threat sources. Increasingly sophisticated attack techniques, combined with an expanded potential threat surface, mean that rail network operators need to be more vigilant than ever to protect the critical resources they manage. In this technical paper, we look at the current situation faced by rail network operators, outline industry best practices.