Modeling for Train-ground Communication Channel Based on WSN

Xiaojun Lv1 , Jianyu Li2 , Xinchun Jia2 , Bo Yang2

1

Institute of Computing Technology, China Academy of Railway Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
2
School of Mathematical Sciences, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China
E-mail: xchjia@sxu.edu.cn

Abstract: In this paper, wireless sensor network (WSN) is deployed along the high speed railway to monitor around environment and to communicate with the high speed trains, which will improve the security of high speed rail signicantly.
Therefore, modeling a communication channel between the train and the ground nodes has very important signicance.
In this paper, a deployment scheme of wireless sensor network on a viaduct is rst given, and then, considering the unique characteristics of the high speed train runs on the viaduct, the train-ground communication channel is modeled as a
nite-state Markov chain (FSMC). Unlike most existing channel models, which divide the location extent of a train into n
non-overlapping intervals uniformly, in our channel model, the intervals are rst divided based on path loss model. And
then, we partition each interval uniformly into some smaller intervals. The simulated data of communication channel
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is produced by MATLAB, and the accuracy improvement of channel model is illustrated by
comparing with an existing channel model.
Key Words: wireless sensor network (WSN), nite-state Markov chain (FSMC), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), free space
path loss model

INTRODUCTION

With the rapid increasing of global population, the railway transportation industry has also achieved great development. Concomitantly, the security issue of high
speed trains has been paid more and more attention.
Communication-based train control (CBTC) system has
been widely used because it can improve the performance
of trains effectively [1]. However, the safety of the train
operating environment cannot be monitored by CBTC system, including the damage extent of viaduct, external environment temperature of high speed trains and so on,
which brings increasingly prominent train security problems. Therefore, we want to deploy wireless sensor network (WSN) along the high speed railway to monitor the
railway information. And we deploy the sink nodes to collect the information from sensor nodes and transmit them
to the train. Consequently, the train can get the real-time information of the around environment, which promotes the
safety level of the running train.
The technologies about WSN in high speed railway have
been studied [2]-[4]. The authors in [2] proposed an early
warning system of new arriving train based on WSN. A
beacon-driven wake-up scheme for train localization using
WSN is given in [3]. In [4], the safety of freight trains have
been improved by using WSN. However, these literatures
do not consider the train-ground communication channel
model.
Modeling the channels of train-ground communication
is very meaningful for the deployment of sensor nodes and
This work was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of
China under Grant (U1334210, 61374059), and in part by the International S & T Cooperation Program of Shanxi Province, China (2013081040)

c
978-1-4799-7016-2/15/$31.00 2015
IEEE

sink nodes. There are some previous works on train-ground

communication channel model based on radio wave propagation [5], [6]. A train-ground communication channel
model based on tunnel experiment is given in [5]. Based on
the Winner II physical-layer channel model parameter, [6]
presented a channel model for high speed railway. However, all of them divided the location extent of a train uniformly into n non-overlapping intervals, and then modeling the
channel in each interval. In this paper, we partition the location extent of a train based on free space path loss model
[7] to improve the accuracy of channel model.
In this paper, we develop a nite-state Markov chain (FSMC) model for the communication channel between sink
node and high speed train. FSMC model has been widely
used in the modeling of communication channel, such as
indoor channels [8], Rayleigh fading channels [9], Ricean
fading channels [10], and Nakagami fading channels [11].
And a lot of analytical results of system performance can
be derived by using FSMC model [12].
To the best of our knowledge, FSMC modelling for communication channel between sink nodes and high speed
train has not been studied in the previous works, which motivates current study. The main contributions of this paper
are as follows.
The location of a train is partitioned based on free space path loss model, which improves the accuracy of
channel model.
The improvement in accuracy of the proposed FSMC model is illustrated by comparing with the model
given by [5].
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section
2 describes the deployment scheme of sensor nodes and
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sink nodes on the viaduct. The FSMC model is introduced

in Section 3. Then, in Section 4, some simulation results
of the proposed channel model are presented to illustrate
the improvement of our model in accuracy. Finally, the
conclusion and future works are given in Section 5.

THE DEPLOYMENT SCHEME OF WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK ON THE

VIADUCT

A deployment scheme of a wireless sensor network on

the viaduct is given by Fig.1, where the wireless sensor network is used to monitor the damage extent of the viaduct
and around environment of the high speed rail. The yellow dots represent the sink nodes, and the other color dots
represent the sensor nodes, the same color dots represent
the same class sensor nodes. The sensor nodes collect the
information of viaduct and around environment and send
them to a sink node. Sink nodes receive the information
from the sensor nodes and then transmit them to the current passing train.

Figure 1: The deployment of WSN on the viaduct

Fig.2 describes a schematic diagram of communication
between the train and sink nodes. The distances between
adjacent sinks and sink to rail are L and d0 , respectively.
The distance between the train and the sink node which
is communicating with the train is d, as shown in Fig.2.
The train is communicating with a sink node when it approaches to the node. And the sink node transmits the information collected from sensor nodes to the train. Signal
strength decreasing with the train away from the sink node,
and handoff happen when the signal strength is lower than
a certain threshold, namely, the train cuts off the communication with the sink node, and communicates with the next
sink node.

Figure 2: Schematic diagram of train-ground communication on the viaduct

In this paper, for simplicity, we consider the train communicates with only one sink node. The process that the
train approaches to the sink node and the process that the
train leaves from the sink node can be regarded as symmetrical, so we only consider the process that the train leaves

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from the sink node. 2.4GHz Radio Frequency (RF) technology is used for the communication.

FSMC CHANNEL MODEL

To establish the model of the communication channel between the train and a sink node, we dene channel states
according to the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels and use an FSMC to track the state variation. Here, we
rst introduce FSMC model, followed by the estimation of
model parameters.
3.1 FSMC model
The received average SNR is varied continuously when
the train running under high-speed circumstances because
of the effect of path loss. Obviously, the received average
SNR is high when the train is close to the sink node, whereas it is low when the train is far away from the sink node.
Thus, the received average SNR depends on the distance
between the train and a sink node. So, it is unreasonable
to model the channel of whole location extent as a FSMC.
Here, we rst divide the location extent of a train into n
non-overlapping intervals, and then model the channel as
FSMC in each interval.
In each interval, the SNR range of received signals is partitioned into N non-overlapping levels with threshold n ,
n = 0, 1, . . . , N , where 0 and N represent the minimum
and maximum values respectively and can be measured.
The time axis is discretized into slots, and the duration of
each slot is TF . We assume that the SNR remains same value during each slot. Let (k) denote the received SNR in
time slot k. If n1 < (k) < n , then the channel state is
Sn at time k. As a result, the variation of the channel state
can be modeled as an FSMC. State transition probability
from state j to state n, pjn , can be shown as
pjn = Pr {(k + 1) = Sn |(k) = Sj }.

(1)

As mentioned in [5], we assume that the channel state can

only transit to the adjacent states, namely pjn = 0, if
|j n| > 1. Thus, we can dene a state transition matrix
P with elements pjn .
In order to distinguish the P in different internals, we use
the notion P l as the state transition matrix in lth interval
with elements pljn . Here, pljn can be formulated as
pljn = Pr { l (k + 1) = Snl | l (k) = Sjl }

(2)

where pljn is the state transition probability from state j

to state n in the lth interval, Snl and l (k) are the channel
state n and SNR at time k in the lth interval respectively.
According to the obtained data, we can get the formulas
of state probability pln and state transition probability pljn
[5]
al { l (k) = Snl }
(3)
pln = Nn
l
l
l
i=1 aj { (k) = Si }
aljn { l (k + 1) = Snl | l (k) = Sjl }
pljn = N
l
l l
l
l
i=1 aji { (k + 1) = Si | (k) = Sj }

(4)

where, aln { l (k) = Snl } is the number of times that the

state Sn appears in the lth interval, aljn { l (k + 1) =

2015 27th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC)

Snl | l (k) = Sjl } is the number of times that the state j

transits to state n in the lth interval.
3.2

Interval division

In this section, we present the innovation of our channel

modeling method, which also is one of the main contributions of this paper.
3.2.1 Path loss model
Due to the effect of path loss, the received average SNR
in [6] is:
(d) = Pt P L(d) N0
(5)
where Pt and N0 are the transmission power and the noise
power in dBm, respectively, d is the distance between the
train and the sink node. P L(d) is the path loss model. Because the train runs on the viaduct, there are few obstacles
between the train and the sink node. P L(d) can be described as the free space path loss model [7]
P L(d) = 20 lg d + 20 lg

4fc
c

(6)

where fc is the carrier frequency in Hz, c is velocity of light

in vacuum. Due to the deployment of sink nodes as shown
in Fig.2, the (6) can be rewritten as
4fc
P L(d) = 20 lg (d + d0 ) + 20 lg
c

i = Pt P L(0) N0 i

P L(D) P L(0)
n

(9)

where D is the maximum measured distance.

According to (5), we can get the corresponding
d0 , d1 , . . . , dM , where d0 = 0, dM = D. So, we obtain M
internals (di , di+1 ), i = 0, 1, . . . , M 1, and then divide
each interval (di , di+1 ) into Q smaller intervals uniformly.
diq = di + q

di+1 di
Q

(10)

where diq , q = 1, 2, . . . , Q 1 represents the qth segmentation point in interval (di , di+1 ).

3.2.2 Non-equality partition of the location extent of

the train
We assume that both the transmission power and noise
power are constant, we take the derivative of the formula
(5) with respect to distance d
20
.
(d + d0 ) ln 10

the distance between the train and sink node, y-axis is average SNR. i , i = 0, 1, . . . , M , are the equal partitions of
the range of average SNR,

(7)

where d and d0 is the distance as shown in Fig.2.

(d)
=

Figure 3: Schematic diagram of non-equality partition

(8)

It is easy to discover that the derivative of average SNR is

increase with the increase of the distance d.
We can nd that the channel fast fading models introduced in [13], Rayleigh fading model, Nakagami-q (hoyt)
model, Nakagami-n (rice) model and Nakagami-m model,
whose SNR probability density function have a same parameter, namely, average SNR. If we divide the location
extent of a train uniformly, then, the range of average SNR
is large in the interval that is close to the sink node. Thus,
it is difcult to describe the fast fading model accurately in
the interval by using a average SNR.
Due to the speed characteristic of a high-speed train, few
data can be received by the train when the distance of interval is small, which reduce the precision of the model in
large extent. Therefore, the length of the partitioned interval cannot be too small.
Based on the considerations above, we divide the location extent of a train as shown in Fig.3. In Fig.3, x-axis is

3.3 Division of the SNR level in each interval

The division of SNR level in each interval is the key issue
that affects the accuracy of the FSMC model. It directly
determines the number of channel states of each interval
and to a certain extent gives the rationality of channel state
division. Here, We choose the Lloyd-Max technique [14]
to partition the SNR level in this paper.
The determination of distribution of the SNR is very important in the division of SNR level. There some classic
models to describe the fast fading channel, such as Rician,
Rayleigh and Nakagami-m [13]. Due to the trains we studied is running on the viaduct, the line of sight (LoS) path
typically exists in the multipath environment. Thus, the
fast-fading can be described using a Rician channel model
[6]. A noncentral Chi-square distribution with two degrees
of freedom can be used to describe the received SNR probability distribution function (PDF) of Rician fading channel
p( l ) =

Kl + 1
(K l + 1) l
exp[K l
]
l

l

4K l (K l + 1) l
I0 [
]
l

(11)

where K l is the fading factor of Rician fading in lth interval, I0 [] is the zero order modied Bessel function of
the rst kind. Both the K l and l can be estimated by a
maximum-likelihood estimator.

2015 27th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC)

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SIMULATION

In this paper, to prove the improvement of our channel

model in accuracy, we compare our channel model with
the channel model presented in [5]. The mean square error
(MSE) is derived to describe the model precision.

The state transition matrix of our channel model can be

obtained based on simulated data and the thresholds of SNR levels. Here, we give the state transition matrix of our
channel model in interval [25, 30] as follows

P 13

0.56 0.44
0
0
0.24 0.47 0.29
0

=
0
0.29 0.59 0.12
0
0
0.33 0.67

(12)

It can be observed from the state transition matrix that the

channel state can only transit to the adjacent states, which
shows the rationality of our simulated data.

Figure 4: Simulated data

To obtain the simulated data of channel, we assume that
D = 250m, d0 = 3m, Pt = 46dBm, N0 = 49.6dBm,
fc = 2.4GHz, c = 3108 m/s. The simulated data is produced by MATLAB random function as shown in Fig.4. In
each interval, we divide the channel into four states through
the SNR level thresholds. We partition the location extent
of a train into 25 intervals in both channel models. Therefore, in the channel model [5], the length of each interval
is 10m. In our channel model, we rst divide the location
extent of a train into 5 intervals based on path loss model (9), then partition each interval into 5 smaller intervals
uniformly (10). For simplicity, the length of each smaller
interval is set as an integer. Thus, the length of 5 intervals
are 5m, 10m, 25m, 60m and 150m, the length of corresponding smaller intervals are 1m, 2m, 5m, 12m and 30m.
According to Lloyd-Max technique, we can get the thresholds and quantized values of SNR levels in each intervals.
The quantized values is used to represent the corresponding channel states. Table 1 and Table 2 give the thresholds
and quantized values of SNR levels in interval [15, 40].
Table 1: Thresholds of SNR levels in interval [15, 40]
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th

[15, 20]
46.2
48.2
50.3
52.9
56.1

[20, 25]
40.9
42.4
44.0
45.8
47.7

[25, 30]
44.0
45.4
46.9
48.6
50.6

[30,35]
37.8
39.8
41.9
44.3
47.1

[35,40]
32.1
33.6
35.0
36.4
37.9

Table 2: Quantized values of SNR levels in interval [15, 40]

1st
2nd
3rd
4th

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[15, 20]
47.2
49.2
51.5
54.4

[20, 25]
41.6
43.2
44.9
46.7

[25, 30]
44.7
46.2
47.8
49.6

[30,35]
38.8
40.8
43.1
45.6

[35,40]
32.8
34.3
35.7
37.2

Figure 5: Simulation results generated from channel model

in [5] and the simulated results from simulated data

Figure 6: Simulation results generated from our channel

model and the simulated results from simulated data
After we get the quantized values and state transition matrix, we can acquire the FSMC model of communication
channel. THe simulation results generated from channel
model in [5] and the simulated results from simulated data
are given in Fig.5. Fig.6 shows the simulation results generated from our channel model and the simulated results
from simulated data. In the two gures, the red line represents the simulated results generated from simulated data, the blue line represents the simulation results generated
from channel model.
Table 3: MSEs of 5 times simulation results
MSE1
MSE2

1
13.5
4.5

2
5.0
4.4

3
1.1
4.4

2015 27th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC)

4
3.3
4.4

5
19.0
4.3

In order to better illustrate the accuracy improvement of

our channel model, MSE is used to denote the model precision. And due to the randomness of FSMC model, we
give the MSEs of 5 times simulation results. In Table 3,
MSE1 represents the MSE of channel model in [5], MSE2
represents the MSE of our channel model. From the data
of Table 3, we can obtain that the mean values of MSEs of
channel model in [5] is 8.48 which is larger than the mean
values of MSEs of our channel model which is 4.4. And
we can also observed clearly that the MSE of our channel
model is more stable than the channel model in [5].

[12] P. Sadeghi, R. Kennedy, P. Rapajic, and R. Shams, Finitestate Markov modeling of fading channelsA survey of principles and applications, IEEE Signal Process. Mag., Vol. 25,
No. 5, pp. 57-80, Sep. 2008.
[13] M. K. Simon and M.-S. Alouini, Digital Communication
over Fading Channels.. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley, 2005.
[14] S. Lloyd, Least squares quantization in PCM,IEEE Trans.
Inf. Theory, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 129-137, Mar. 1982.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS

It is very signicant for evaluating the channel quality

to model the channel between the trains and sink nodes.
In this paper, we present a new distance-division approach
to model the channel. And based on simulated data, we
demonstrate the improvement of our channel model in accuracy by comparing with a exiting model. Future works
are to nish the eld test and to verify the improvement of our channel model in accuracy by using the eld test
results.

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