High-speed railway channel measurements and characterizations: a review

Wireless communication for high-speed railways (HSRs) that provides reliable and high data rate communication between the train and trackside networks is a challenging task. It is estimated that the wireless communication traffic could be as high as 65 Mbps per high-speed train. The development of such HSR communications systems and standards requires, in turn, accurate models for the HSR propagation channel. This article provides an overview of existing HSR channel measurement campaigns in recent years. Particularly, some important measurement and modeling results in various HSR scenarios, such as viaduct and U-shaped groove (USG), are briefly described and analyzed. In addition, we review a novel channel sounding method, which can highly improve the measurement efficiency in HSR environment.