Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Safe4Rail-3 (Advanced safety architecture and components for next generation TCMS in Railways)
Reporting period: 2022-06-01 to 2023-11-30
The standards and concepts which defined in the 90’s the foundation of the Train Control and Monitoring System (TCMS) are still reliable and applicable but they accumulated many technological limitations. The Next Generation TCMS (NG-TCMS) aims at overcoming these limitations through the implementation of new technological concepts and technologies, providing newer and safer features for the on-board subsystems and reaching highly available and reliable train operation.
Safe4Rail-3 in collaboration with CONNECTA-3 will contribute to the development of the NG-TCMS advancing the maturity of the technologies and devices acquired in Safe4Rail-2 to achieve TRL 6/7 and validating them in relevant environments.
The main objectives of Safe4Rail-3 are listed hereafter
• Obj1: Advanced safety architecture and DbD devices in order to pass from prototypes to TRL 6/7 solutions.
• Obj2: Advanced wireless technologies for a wireless TCMS
• Obj3: Integration of TCMS subsystems (AP) on Functional Distribution Framework
• Obj4: Assessment of the safety and cybersecurity of DbD, FDF and Wireless TCMS
• Obj5: Development of a centralization tool for the DbD
• Obj6: Contribution to benchmarking of proposed NG-TCMS as well as standardization in railway and wireless domains
Safe4Rail-3 ended its action complying with the planned activities and achieving its objectives. The consortium released advanced mature DbD and wireless TCMS devices (TRL6/7) to CONNECTA-3 who performed the demonstration in relevant environments. The investigations of the AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform (AP) based FDF have been disrupted as it does not offer a level of stability to achieve a TRL 6/7 for the SIL 4 functions (amendment). The safety and cybersecurity assessment were performed and the consortium contributed to the benchmarking and the standardisation activities.
Safe4Rail-3 in collaboration with CONNECTA-3 will contribute to the development of the NG-TCMS advancing the maturity of the technologies and devices acquired in Safe4Rail-2 to achieve TRL 6/7 and validating them in relevant environments.
The main objectives of Safe4Rail-3 are listed hereafter
• Obj1: Advanced safety architecture and DbD devices in order to pass from prototypes to TRL 6/7 solutions.
• Obj2: Advanced wireless technologies for a wireless TCMS
• Obj3: Integration of TCMS subsystems (AP) on Functional Distribution Framework
• Obj4: Assessment of the safety and cybersecurity of DbD, FDF and Wireless TCMS
• Obj5: Development of a centralization tool for the DbD
• Obj6: Contribution to benchmarking of proposed NG-TCMS as well as standardization in railway and wireless domains
Safe4Rail-3 ended its action complying with the planned activities and achieving its objectives. The consortium released advanced mature DbD and wireless TCMS devices (TRL6/7) to CONNECTA-3 who performed the demonstration in relevant environments. The investigations of the AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform (AP) based FDF have been disrupted as it does not offer a level of stability to achieve a TRL 6/7 for the SIL 4 functions (amendment). The safety and cybersecurity assessment were performed and the consortium contributed to the benchmarking and the standardisation activities.
Safe4Rail-3’s consortium continued and finalized the development of the NG-TCMS devices (DbD and wireless TCMS) to achieve the expected TRL6/7 after completing the NG-TCMS specification in the first period. All the devices were submitted to CONNECTA-3 as planned to allow them to perform the NG-TCMS demonstration in relevant environments. The assessment of the safety and cybersecurity was completed through the analysis of specific questions in the areas of DbD, FDF and Wireless TCMS and considering available and updated documentation from CTA-3 and in consultation with CTA-3.
The contribution to the standardization was performed in collaboration with the complementary project CONNECTA-3 through our involvement on the IEC TC9/WG46 and the update of the standard IEC 61375.
The project results were presented in different congresses and events. An advisory board constituted by main stakeholders was set up to review and discuss the preliminary results and provide their comments which could improve the likelihood of acceptance of project result by the sector and the time to market.
Final public event was organized with main stakeholders to present them main project's results and achievements through oral presentations of main leaders and real demonstrations. During the event, the main project results and the continuation of the activity was discussed with main stakeholder.
Additional dissemination material was distributed through different public channels like 2 Newsletters, Social Media and public articles published at project website.
The contribution to the standardization was performed in collaboration with the complementary project CONNECTA-3 through our involvement on the IEC TC9/WG46 and the update of the standard IEC 61375.
The project results were presented in different congresses and events. An advisory board constituted by main stakeholders was set up to review and discuss the preliminary results and provide their comments which could improve the likelihood of acceptance of project result by the sector and the time to market.
Final public event was organized with main stakeholders to present them main project's results and achievements through oral presentations of main leaders and real demonstrations. During the event, the main project results and the continuation of the activity was discussed with main stakeholder.
Additional dissemination material was distributed through different public channels like 2 Newsletters, Social Media and public articles published at project website.
The Safe4Rail-3 consortium had at the end of the project a TRL 6/7 DbD and Wireless devices already integrated and validated in the CONNECTA-3 operational relevant environment which can contribute to the implementation of the NG-TCMS increasing the capacity of the lines and the Life Cycle Costs and their performance.
In addition, the results of the wireless antenna position but also the Safety and Cybersecurity studies contributes to define the future evolution of the technologies.
These are the advances and impacts in the three research areas of the project:
1. DBD: The consortium plan released by the end of the project a TRL 6/7 DbD devices(i.e. consist switch and PCIe card). These devices are based on the Time Sensitive Network (TSN) technology, which has mechanisms to create, distribute, synchronise and operate systems in real time. Even though current trains already meet very high safety standards, the TSN technology increases the time precision with which the monitoring and control data are managed in the bus of the train (the Train Control and Monitoring Systems, or TCMS), increasing in this way the safety of the different train systems.
2. Current communication systems inside the train are based on wired solutions that are very costly to maintain and reduce the flexibility of installations. For this reason, Safe4RAIL-3 developed a wireless solution with high TRL level (TRL 6/7) for the bus of the train that removes the current physical connections, which reduces maintenance costs and gives greater flexibility to operations such as the connection and disconnection of wagons. This has involved an analysis of currently available wireless standards and the subsequent implementation of improvements on the standards in order to fulfil the communication requirements of the train.
The developments of all wireless devices has advanced correctly, except for the OAI LTE-V2X module, which has been delayed due to difficult code merge between different OAI branches, as well as commercial LTE-V2X modules (MK6) by Cohda Wireless, which are operational but do not support natively ETBN Ethertypes. By the end of the project all wireless devices will be completed.
3. Another output of the project was the independent safety studies and cybersecurity studies for the system architecture and perform analysis and close cooperate with the OEMs and real providers in order to update the concepts if necessarily. Additionally, the consortium is contributing to the standardization through the collaboration with the complementary project CONNECTA-3 and our involvement on the IEC TC9/WG46 where we focus on update of the standard IEC 61375 (Train communication network).
The current status of the different parts of the standard is as follows:
• IEC 61375-1. CD (Committee draft for comments) version was finalised and circulated to different international committees and were received their comments. Currently, this group is preparing a CDV (Committee draft for vote) version, attending National Committees' comments and incorporating the latest change request (e.g. cybersecurity).
• IEC 61375-2-5. The IEC/TC9 WG43 SGT4 group is working on revision of this part as CD (Committee draft for comments) version to include the ETBN features specified for the NG-TCMS .
• IEC 61375-3-4. WG43 plenary meeting agreed to review this part to include the CS features specified for the NG-TCMS
• IEC 61375-2-3. The IEC/TC9 WG43 SGT8 group is working on revision of this part as CD (Committee draft for comments) version to include the requirements for communications specified for the NG-TCMS as part of the scope.
• IEC 61375-2-7. At the IEC/TC9 WG43 plenary meeting in Oct 2023, it was decided to launch the NP on “Electronic railway equipment– Train communication network (TCN) .
In addition, the results of the wireless antenna position but also the Safety and Cybersecurity studies contributes to define the future evolution of the technologies.
These are the advances and impacts in the three research areas of the project:
1. DBD: The consortium plan released by the end of the project a TRL 6/7 DbD devices(i.e. consist switch and PCIe card). These devices are based on the Time Sensitive Network (TSN) technology, which has mechanisms to create, distribute, synchronise and operate systems in real time. Even though current trains already meet very high safety standards, the TSN technology increases the time precision with which the monitoring and control data are managed in the bus of the train (the Train Control and Monitoring Systems, or TCMS), increasing in this way the safety of the different train systems.
2. Current communication systems inside the train are based on wired solutions that are very costly to maintain and reduce the flexibility of installations. For this reason, Safe4RAIL-3 developed a wireless solution with high TRL level (TRL 6/7) for the bus of the train that removes the current physical connections, which reduces maintenance costs and gives greater flexibility to operations such as the connection and disconnection of wagons. This has involved an analysis of currently available wireless standards and the subsequent implementation of improvements on the standards in order to fulfil the communication requirements of the train.
The developments of all wireless devices has advanced correctly, except for the OAI LTE-V2X module, which has been delayed due to difficult code merge between different OAI branches, as well as commercial LTE-V2X modules (MK6) by Cohda Wireless, which are operational but do not support natively ETBN Ethertypes. By the end of the project all wireless devices will be completed.
3. Another output of the project was the independent safety studies and cybersecurity studies for the system architecture and perform analysis and close cooperate with the OEMs and real providers in order to update the concepts if necessarily. Additionally, the consortium is contributing to the standardization through the collaboration with the complementary project CONNECTA-3 and our involvement on the IEC TC9/WG46 where we focus on update of the standard IEC 61375 (Train communication network).
The current status of the different parts of the standard is as follows:
• IEC 61375-1. CD (Committee draft for comments) version was finalised and circulated to different international committees and were received their comments. Currently, this group is preparing a CDV (Committee draft for vote) version, attending National Committees' comments and incorporating the latest change request (e.g. cybersecurity).
• IEC 61375-2-5. The IEC/TC9 WG43 SGT4 group is working on revision of this part as CD (Committee draft for comments) version to include the ETBN features specified for the NG-TCMS .
• IEC 61375-3-4. WG43 plenary meeting agreed to review this part to include the CS features specified for the NG-TCMS
• IEC 61375-2-3. The IEC/TC9 WG43 SGT8 group is working on revision of this part as CD (Committee draft for comments) version to include the requirements for communications specified for the NG-TCMS as part of the scope.
• IEC 61375-2-7. At the IEC/TC9 WG43 plenary meeting in Oct 2023, it was decided to launch the NP on “Electronic railway equipment– Train communication network (TCN) .