The Telecom On-Board Architecture (TOBA) Working Group, part of the UIC FRMCS (Future Railway Mobile Communication System) Programme structure, just released two important specifications on 16 April 2020.

The first specification is the ‘’FRMCS On-Board Architecture Functional Requirements Specification (FRS)’’ (code TOBA 7510 version 0.2.0). This document defines the specific requirements for the FRMCS on-board system, encompassing the FRMCS On-Board System boundaries and functional entities, as well as functional requirements including necessary system interfaces.

TOBA 7510 was firstly reviewed and refined inside the UIC FRMCS Working Groups and has now been officially distributed to ERA, CER & EIM, ETSI TC-RT, UNITEL, UNISIG, ERTMS User Group, OCORA, Shift2Rail CONNECTA and Shift2Rail X2Rail for a full sector review, with a deadline fixed on 18 May. Following this step, it is foreseen to release a first TOBA FRS stable version by June, in accordance with the general FRMCS schedule defined by UIC.

This essential document will start the next step of specification for the FRMCS On-Board System (the so-called “TOBA BOX”), including the specification for interfaces and the System Requirements Specification.

The second specification released at the same time is the ‘’FRMCS Telecom On-Board Migration Scenarios’’ (code TOBA 7540 version 1.0.0). This document is based on the previous released document ‘’Description and Evaluation of Possible FRMCS Migration Variants for Existing ETCS and Cab Radio On-Board Units’’ (code TOBA 7515 version 1.2.0), that provided the elements for the ERA CCS Control Group decision regarding the preferred scenario for ETCS migration to FRMCS, now well known as “Option 3”.

TOBA 7540 aims to propose and analyse the relevant scenarios for migration from GSM-R to FRMCS for ETCS, for Cab Radio (voice applications including the essential Railway Emergency Call), and considering furthermore the case of simultaneous migration of ETCS computer and Cab Radio. This document was distributed for information together with the request of review for TOBA 7510.

The release of these two documents was possible due to the continuous and impressive work of the UIC Telecom On-Board Architecture Working Group, even in the current confinement conditions, for which we adapted to a new specific way of working, with more frequent on-line meetings to keep the sustained rhythm of work., situation which actually is valid for the a large part of UIC activities.

The UIC FRMCS Programme is developing all the technical conditions for the 5G FRMCS, with the main objective to make available a “FRMCS First Edition” ecosystem available for procurement by Q1 2025.