Rail-IQ-Systems
Solution
Rethinking Rail Traffic Management
The solid fundament of our current and future solutions is our international recognized patent (e.g. EU, US) which includes 3 main fields
Geo-Fences (=”Polygons”)
Polygons are freely selectable route sections (passive or dynamic) that contain information on geodata, block ID, track ID, etc.
Polygon is a replacement for the permanently defined route blocks, including their necessary infrastructure items
OTU
OTU is a so called “on-train unit” with 2 main components as a memory and GNSS. Memory has stored e.g. relevant route information (as well as data on direction of travel, speed, power supply of the OTU (in the case of a combination with a battery)) and for the GNSS the OTU is equipped with a / several receivers (choice tbd).
- OTU is a replacement for existing signals (in conjunction with polygons)
- OTU is a replacement for various variants of train rear end detection
- OTU information can be seen in the driver's cab and in the Operation or Traffic Management Center
Satellite Communication
ADELE-Rail will provide with its train-onboard satcom functionalities a communication channel in addition and independent/dissimilar to on-board channels provided e.g. by the train communication backbone. This will enable the high safety SIL levels which are required for the integration of the trains into train control systems.
ADELE-Rail will use the on-board power and data communication (e.g. train communication backbone enabled by the Digital Automatic Coupler DAC for the freight trains which is currently under definition/development), e.g. guaranteeing the
- Power within the whole train, including for the ADELE OTU-set
- Train data backbone, i.e.data communication over the whole train, also for the ADELE-OTU
- Using existing hardware and software
Since all types of transport modes, and especially railways, have high safety requirements, we have also incorporated various safety elements, such as:
- Failure of the defined radio connection leads to the train stopping
- Incomplete OTU messages (leaving the polygon) lead to blocking of the route block or previous polygon
Example
We can introduce as an example a possible solution of ADELE with:
PowerLine Communication Train Backbone
plc-tec with its research partner HSLU (University of Applied Science Lucerne) have developed a Power Line Communication PLC train communication backbone technology PTB (on-board data communication over the whole freight train incl. DACs) which is currently tested in European field trials.
ADELE-Rail / product vision is to provide a dissimilar channel through MobSatCom in combination with GNSS which can be combined with plc-tec’s on-board PTB to achieve the required safety/SIL levels for on-board train integrity (OTI) and train-length-determination as part of a new traffic management / train control system.
The availability of the satcom link opens also new opportunities as e.g. the integration of data flows into the whole logistic chain, in addition or independently of any infrastructure train-to-ground communication system.