Korea’s Hoimyung ICT Corporation and Softil yesterday marked their five year partnership together in building next generation 3GPP MCPTX standard compliant terminals for use in South Korea’s high-speed railway lines.
The terminals have been in full production since September 2018 and are well prepared to meet the demands of the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) European standard.
Since 2018, more than 140 high-speed trains across Korea’s rail network have been equipped with the Hoimyung-Softil MCX-enabled terminals. It is estimated that more than 125 million people travel on these intelligent express trains each year.
Hoimyung ICT Corporation terminals are built with LTE-R technology, a version of LTE designed specifically for the mission-critical operational and maintenance services of railway operators, utilizing Softil's BEEHD framework for stable voice, video, and data communication on high-speed trains exceeding 250 km/h. They also offer essential features like real-time train tracking and railroad guidance for engine drivers, enhancing railway safety and efficiency.
As the FRMCS standard evolves, Hoimyung ICT Corporation and Softil will continue to extend the solution for other applications and use cases to comply with all developing FRMCS requirements for signaling in the Korean market as well as to meet the signaling requirements for global markets.
Pierre Hagendorf, CEO, Softil
The highly successful cooperation between our two firms is now poised to enter a new phase as Hoimyung aims to develop a new train signaling system called KTCS-3 leveraging Softil’s pioneering BEEHD technology. The system will allow more trains to run at the same time on a set route with maximum safety.
Chris Han, CEO, Hoimyung ICT Corporation
The next generation of on-board signaling system supporting automatic operation is an ATP/ATO-integrated on-board system that meets European railway standards. The new signaling system will allow train control using only radio communication (LTE-R) without using existing track circuits in high-speed railway operating environments in the 350 km/h speed band.
