QATS GSM-R by Expandium: solutions for safety serving rail operations
Posted: 28 January 2010 | | No comments yet
Because safety is a vital concern for all players in the rail industry, Expandium has designed QATS – a highly efficient troubleshooting solution enabling technical staff to detect network malfunctions early and correct them. With QATS, Expandium’s experts have met the challenge to display and monitor the performance of a Railway Emergency Call facility in real-time (list of participants, quality of service provided, etc.).
Because safety is a vital concern for all players in the rail industry, Expandium has designed QATS – a highly efficient troubleshooting solution enabling technical staff to detect network malfunctions early and correct them. With QATS, Expandium’s experts have met the challenge to display and monitor the performance of a Railway Emergency Call facility in real-time (list of participants, quality of service provided, etc.).
Because safety is a vital concern for all players in the rail industry, Expandium has designed QATS – a highly efficient troubleshooting solution enabling technical staff to detect network malfunctions early and correct them.
With QATS, Expandium’s experts have met the challenge to display and monitor the performance of a Railway Emergency Call facility in real-time (list of participants, quality of service provided, etc.).
Using high capacity eProbes, QATS measures the quality of service in real-time. The probes capture all messages, which are sorted and analysed, with the data immediately made available to the user (call counting, dropped calls, analysis of malfunctions, etc.). Whenever a failure is detected, QATS GSM-R triggers a highly effective system of alarms.
Downstream, a user-friendly graphical interface is provided for technical staff who, starting from an overview of network quality (charts, maps, diagrams, etc.), are able to single out individual railway lines and narrow down their selection, going as far as a breakdown of each event for a specific call. The data are saved for subsequent analysis.
Why invest in a rail network monitoring and analysis tool?
To improve safety and detect incidents early. During the network rollout phase, QATS can be used to control and validate the quality of GSM-R coverage, the correct routing of calls (Railway Emergency Calls, calls to the operating centre), interoperability between equipment supplied by different providers and interoperability with cross-border networks.
During the operations phase, QATS GSM-R gives the rail operator the assurance that its network is being monitored continuously and that all signalling passing through its equipment is exhaustively recorded.
Why choose Expandium?
Expandium integrated the specific nature of the railway context at a very early stage and put forward a GSM-R and ETCS-dedicated solution designed to meet rail operators’ requirements. The company has no ties with any particular original equipment manufacturer and its independence ensures that Quality of Service is measured objectively.
With the QATS GSM-R solution, Expandium is the only partner to meet all GSM-R and ETCS operator requirements, since it extends its capabilities to LDA, VGCS (incl. Railway emergency call) and to ETCS transfers, etc. Its high-performance services are adapted to meet each customer’s specific requirements.
Caring for its customers
Expandium’s experts all have a background in IT and telecoms, and specialise in designing ‘new generation’ protocol analysis tools for mobile phone operators. Expandium continues to be small enough to maintain very close working relationships with its customers and ensure flexibility, adaptability and responsiveness. Twice a year, customers (SNCF/RFF, SNCB, DB, and ADIF/NSN…) and providers (NSN, Nortel…) come together for the ‘QATS GSM-R User Group’ – a discussion platform offering them the opportunity to share their experiences. Expandium also provides the Request Tracker – a web interface on which customers can ask questions and seek advice.
