BDS for Railway Train Localization Test and Evaluation Using 3D Environmental Characteristics

BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has been applied in railway train control systems in several railway lines in China. The BDS has advantages as delivering the maneuver location without support from other train borne sensors, but the BDS performance can be degraded due to the environment blockage along the railway tracks. As to study the BDS performance during the journey of the train, a throughout procedure to test the BDS performance and comparing it with the reference system is necessary to test the signal propagation and reception. But the test procedure can be too costly in both time and equipment. So to study the performance in a more detailed way, we explore the BDS signal propagation in a simulated environment, identified the BDS signal as both Line-of-Sight (LOS) and Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) in the setup simulation environment in the lab using the 3D environmental information. The collected data from the train operation in the Sanjiadian railway station has been modelled into parametrical 3D environmental scenarios to create a “zero-on-site” testing environment for performance study. The test cases for train operation with BDS signal for train localization has been generated, the BDS performance has also been studied with several receivers to investigate the BDS performance in various signal reception degradation environments. The repeatability of the test procedure and accuracy are studied, and the optimization using the pre-information of LOS/NLOS are also applied both for parametric performance evaluation and also for performance optimizations.