# 5G-Based Digital Transformation at SNCF Voyageurs Maintenance Centre

Cedric Gallais, Christophe Krausch, Gemma Morral, Eddy Bajic, Jochen Seitz

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Cedric Gallais, Christophe Krausch, Gemma Morral, Eddy Bajic, Jochen Seitz. 5G-Based Digital Transformation at SNCF Voyageurs Maintenance Centre. 10th TRA Conference, 2024, Apr 2024, Dublin, Ireland. pp.782-788, 10.1007/978-3-032-06763-0_111. hal-05318453

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Submitted on 16 Oct 2025

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# Transport Transitions:
Advancing
Sustainable and
Inclusive Mobility

Proceedings of the 10th TRA
Conference, 2024 Dublin, Ireland
- Volume 6: Connected Mobility
Ecosystems

OPEN ACCESS

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Springer
# 5G-Based Digital Transformation at SNCF
Voyageurs Maintenance Centre

Cedric Gallais¹, Christophe Krausch¹, Gemma Morral¹, Eddy Bajic²✉,
and Jochen Seitz³

¹ SNCF Voyageurs, Paris, France

² CRAN - CNRS 7039 Campus Sciences, 54506 Vandœuvre-Lès-Nancy, France
eddy.bajic@univ-lorraine.fr

³ Division Positioning and Networks, Fraunhofer IIS, Nuremberg, Germany

**Abstract.** The development of broadband connectivity is a key issue, both for industrial activities and for the performance of the service provided to customers by SNCF Voyageurs. It is a major issue in terms of economic performance, sovereignty, confidence, and sustainability. The introduction of high-speed connectivity should revolutionize the activities of rolling stock maintenance centres, with the development of supervision of assets and robotization of process and supervision, in conjunction with BIM (Building Information Modelling) and digital twin technologies.

**Keywords:** 5G · Connectivity · Positioning · Internet of Things · Product Service System · BIM

# 1 Private 5G: A Game Changer for SNCF Industry 4.0 Strategy

## 1.1 SNCF Rolling Stock Maintenance Facilities

The SNCF itself maintains its rolling stock in 9 entities, which carry out complete mid-life refurbishment operations, and 27 centres for routine maintenance ("*Technicentre de maintenance*"), spread across the whole of France (see Fig. 1).

In this context, a consortium formed by SNCF, Fraunhofer, Nokia, CRAN and Evocortex has recently launched 5G-ILABB project (French-German 2022 research call "5G for industry") which is taking place at Bischeim maintenance centre. SNCF addresses renovation and modernisation of the whole stock of high-speed trains in France. Bischeim centre is holding a full digitalisation of its processes at assets by providing the first BIM of the centre (which is 10.000 sqm and 2000 workers on site). Thanks to a private 5G network and 5G-based localisation techniques the consortium will implement concrete applications to the industry 4.0 evolution at SNCF.
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 1.** Map of 27 centres for SNCF routine maintenance for TGV and TER. Copyright SNCF Voyageurs, reproduced with permission.</figcaption></figure>

## 1.2 Goals of SNCF “Direction Du Matériel”

The work environment in the rolling stock production and storage facilities is particularly complex, with a typical size in the range of 10 to 30 Ha, concrete and steel buildings, faraday cages, catenaries, and other elements with strong impact on electromagnetic waves. 5G local networks are unprecedented opportunities for the digital transformation on industrial centres. The key points to be addressed are Enhanced connectivity, Real time assets tracking and Automated/Guided intelligent vehicles.

**Enhanced Connectivity.** Performance improvement expectations can be achieved in costs, quality, security of workers, real time monitoring and control, supervision, automation, environmental impact. 5G connectivity is nowadays an emergent solution even though some problems are still to be solved requiring research and development efforts. Testbeds design such as Living Labs 5G project proved the coverage improvement when deploying a 5G network (in N77 and N38 bands) in Rennes industrial centres compared to existing public 5G and WiFi networks.

**Real Time Assets Tracking.** Thanks to the BIM model of Bischheim building coupled with 5G connectivity, real-time tracking and localization can be achieved, thus allowing all employees elsewhere to access actual notifications and command installations remotely.

**Automated/Guided Intelligent Vehicles.** Diverse range of vehicles using 5G connectivity can be included in the maintenance processes to assist the human operations and make their worktime safer when working on big train pieces.

## 2 Technologies for the Digital Transformation

The increase in data acquisition systems presents in industrial environment couple with increase of number of users in a same and wide area need dedicated cellular networks. After 4G, 5G technology allows the industrial clients to build their desired network providing the coverage and functionalities needs.
**Relevant Communication Technologies.** Wireless networks most widely used in industry are currently WiFi, LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network as LoraWan, SigFox, NB-IoT) and 4G, each having functional and technological characteristics tailored to different performance requirements in terms of throughput, distance, payload, and energy consumption [2]. 5G which technology is the newcomer in industrial application stands for Fifth Generation Wireless technology initially used for voice and data calls. The initial 5G NR (New Radio) specifications are published by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project consortium (3GPP) in dec. 2017 [3]. 5G is cellular wireless technology like GSM (2G), CDMA (3G) and LTE (Long Term Evolution) (4G) [4].

**5G Networks and Applications.** Currently three types of 5G Networks utilize a wide range of bands from lower bands like 3G and 4G up to very high-frequency bands: Low Band 5G: below 1 GHz, 20% faster than 4G LTE, Mid Band 5G: below 6 GHz, 6 times faster than 4G LTE represents the currently commercial 5G available, and finally High Band 5G: above 6 GHz up to 50 GHz even more hopefully 100 GHz, is 10 times faster than 4G LTE (See Fig. 2). While Sub-6 GHz 5G networks can handle more users than 4G networks, this new technology they do not show substantial speed improvements compared to 4G.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Fig.2.** 5G technology KPIs, and 2G to 5G Spectrum outlook overview (Source IDTechEx: 5G Technology market and forecast 2022–2032)</figcaption></figure>

High band 5G referred as 5G mm Wave which lives operates between 24 GHz and 100 GHz, has weak penetration and an ultra-short-range characteristics due to its physical and technological limitations. This type of 5G can handle a large chunk of data allowing minimum 1 GBps throughput and should support 20 Gbps downlink and 10 Gbps uplink as claimed by 5G operators [5]. Performances can be affected significantly by doors, windows, walls, trees, vehicles and even humans, so that indoor coverage is a real challenge. Whereas 4G networks require 8 to 10 base stations per km2, 5G networks would need as many as 40–50 base stations per km2.

**5G Networks Profiles and Key Performance Indicators (KPI).** To evaluate the performances of a 5G network, the IUT-R (International Telecommunication Union) a United
Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies has elaborated 8 KPIs including data rate, energy efficiency, connection density, latency, etc ... as shown in the spider graph in Fig. 2, considering that a single 5G cannot perform on all KPIs, there are several 5G network configurations or profiles.

The complete 5G System includes 3 scenarios which refer to different application domains that can leverage on 5G New Radio technology:

* eMBB (enhanced Mobile Broadband) as specified in 3GPP Release 15-2018 for high-bandwidth services for wireless connectivity with peak data rate up to 20 Gbps and high mobility of about 500 km/h.

* URLLC (Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications) 3GPP Release 16-2020 for ultra-reliable and responsive communication services with air interface latency less than 1 ms, and low to medium data rates (about 50 Kbps to 10 Mbps) for mission-critical needs.

* mMTC (massive Machine Type Communications) 3GPP Release 16-2020 dedicated to secure communication for very high density of devices (billions of devices) about 2 x 10⁵ in 10⁶/Km², at low data rate (1 to 100 Kbps), so it leverages benefits of ultralow cost of M2M (Machine to Machine communication) to offer up to theoretically 10 years battery life of 5G connected device.

However, full implementation of these three scenarios is not yet possible simultaneously within the same network. A 5G network can only be configured and designed in a way to optimally support one use case. As an example, it can offer either the highest possible data rate or the lowest possible latency. So that achieving both at the same time on the same network is impossible. Finally, 5G technologies promise new opportunities and experiences for industrial applications in diff. Rent situations from device type communication in Internet of Things architecture up to highly mobile broadband communication for high level applications.

**State of the Art of 5G Positioning.** Precise positioning with 5G signals and meter-level positioning accuracy has already been specified by 3GPP in the so-called release 16 in 2020 [6]. Future releases 17 and 18 focus on detailed advancements towards achieving low decimeter-level positioning capabilities [7]. But the maturity of the technology for industrial use is still uncertain, as prototype systems for tests in industrial settings are not available yet [8]. Fraunhofer IIS has therefore created a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) 5G system that allows the early evaluation of real-world 5G positioning applications. During the 5G-ILABB project it will be adapted and extended to test use cases within the environment of SNCF in Bischheim. The goal is to enhance the accuracy and robustness of positioning compared to simple time-of-flight methods by exploiting the channel information of 5G signals by machine learning [9, 10]. In this way precise positioning is even possible in complex industrial environments with multipath propagation of radio signals, including scattering, reflections and blocking of signals.

**Asset Monitoring and Servicing.** Asset monitoring has become a major focus of various industrial sectors to optimize the process flows from accelerating inventories, improving production organization to reducing maintenance costs. By enabling the tracking of physical assets remotely asset monitoring provides real-time asset information on
asset reference, status, performance and sometimes ambient conditions, and obviously precise location. The advent and application of Internet of Things (IoT) concepts and technologies for asset management opens exciting opportunities to optimize equipment efficiency and asset management and tracking. IoT devices are mainly used for data collection and transmission over a wireless network. Further exploitation can be carried out on an IoT device when it is affixed to an asset to perform the calculation of various services embedded on the asset while meeting the requirements of low consumption and small size.

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**Fig.3.** 5G IoT-Companion concept for Supervisory, Remote Control and Tracking of Assets. Copyright CRAN-Université de Lorraine, reproduced with permission.</figcaption></figure>

This is the aim of Product-Service System achievement (PSS) in IoT applications, which needs concept and hardware considerations [1]. By associating an industrial asset with an IOT device and leveraging on 5G network functionalities we provide delivery of added values and services linked to the asset and available in real time for all the actors of the process. Figure 3 presents the concept of 5G IoT Companion as a brick for PSS achievement in production and maintenance facilities.

Digitalization of physical assets is a key element of the project with the aim to transform physical industrial assets into seamlessly connected and controllable device thanks to 5G networking connectivity, and high-level services with intelligent routines attached to currently passive assets. The project proposal is to design a 5G-based autonomous intelligent device so-called «5G IoT companion» as a generic solution to be linked closely to selected physical industrial assets that are highly relevant to process performance improvement and visibility (e.g., wagon, mover, spare parts bin, special tooling, ladder platform, ...). Though according to an IoT approach any physical asset will gain extended capabilities continuously at anytime and anywhere in the plant facility thanks to its personal 5G-IoT Companion. Asset embedded functionalities such as sensing capabilities for environment and status monitoring, for safety and security issues of people and assets, and actuating capabilities for remote control operations, and bidirectional 5G connectivity for data transfer with upper layer will allow advanced remote supervisory and control of physical assets with low latency as expected by 5G networking application. A 5G IoT companion is designed to carry a hierarchical and multi-layer decision-making
model supported by rule-based engine embedded on the device. companion is dedicated to feed high level cloud application with inputs about process situation for data analytics algorithms. moreover, 5G connectivity will provide 5G intrinsic geolocation for precise positioning within the facility.

## 3 Conclusion

The creation of the industrial 5G lab in Bischheim as part of a joint program of the French and German economic ministries, and that of the “Living Lab” in Rennes, have fostered the opening of the first 5G networks in the maintenance centers of SNCF rolling stock, in France. This significantly more efficient connectivity will enable R&D work on the geolocation of assets and their real-time monitoring, with Fraunhofer institute and Université de Lorraine, as well as the implementation of new operational solutions which make these maintenance centers a new kind of innovation labs.

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