Network Rail intends to carry out a procurement exercise to establish a contract for the delivery of a national online key management system. Your formal of Interest will be indicated when a PQQ is completed and issued for Network Rails consideration.

The National Online Key Management System (OKMS) will provide the centralised key administration for all ETCS entities operating on the UK railway, using both online and offline distribution methods. Cryptographic keys are required by each European Train Control System (ETCS) Radio Block Centre (RBC) and each ETCS On Board Unit (OBU) to enable them to communicate over the GSM-R network securely.

The supplier will be required to provide and implement an efficient and intuitive National Online Key Management System (OKMS) which will generate, store, manage, distribute, archive and delete software cryptographic keys for the UK railway.

The system will also support offline key distribution by allowing encrypted keys to be sent.