The TrainCom project

The revitalisation process of European railways depends on the capability of embedding in existing systems new technologies and methodologies, either already existing or specifically developed.

At the end of the nineties, the approval of the Train Communication Network standard (TCN) represented a breakthrough (supported by the ROSIN project in FP4-IST), allowing on board devices to exchange data via a digital network. Now thousands of trains use this technology, but trains cannot be isolated networks. They need to be connected to ground systems through suitable radio links. To make systems even more powerful and easy to manage, Internet offers a deal of proved solutions, which can be adapted for railways, taking care of the peculiarity of train dynamic behaviour, as train composition can change frequently during normal operation. The TrainCom project (an FP5-IST project) is working in this area and its goal is to make train-ground communication as easy as browsing a Web site.
The train on-board network allows data interchange between devices in the same vehicle (via the Vehicle Bus) or in different vehicles (via the Train Bus). For such purpose, each vehicle typically includes a Node, acting as a gateway between the vehicle bus and the train bus. A new type of gateway (ROGATE Railway Open Gateway) has been developed, which connects the complete train to a ground station, using a radio link like GSM-R, the railway version of the GSM. A ROGATE can be developed also for other networking solutions, e.g. FIP, hiding the details of the on board network. XML (eXtensible Markup Language) structures make it easier to exchange data between on-board and ground databases, while TCP-IP (the standard Internet protocol) can be the end-to-end communication protocol between applications.
The result will be a Communication Infrastructure, which is able to support many applications, like Passenger Information, Remote Monitoring and Maintenance, and Remote Control.
The project is divided into five Activity Fields, each intended to contribute also in terms of standardisation proposals and hints to interoperability specifications. Developments are now in the final stage and several demonstrations are planned in the second half of the year.
Of course, much still needs to be done and an FP6 project is envisaged, to cope with the growing requirements of railway applications.
For more information, see the project web site at http://www.traincom.org which reached now a world-wide audience, also thanks to the CORDIS diffusion activities.,