Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CONNECTA-2 (CONtributing to Shift2Rail's NExt generation of high Capable and safe TCMS. PhAse 2.)
Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2021-07-31
According to the DoA of the project, the high level objective of the work is to continue the activities started in CONNECTA-1 to bring the technologies to TRL4/5 and deploy them in relevant laboratory scenarios. In Reporting Period 1 the deployment of main component to validate in the laboratory demonstrators were deployed. During this Reporting Period 2, the laboratories used for validating these deployments has been designed and implemented, as well as the design, implementation and execution of validation tests. The following objectives have been set and achieved:
•The implementation of the evolved T2G and the Application Profiles which will run on top of the FDF has been successfully achieved.
•The specification of test scenarios and test cases for demonstrating the correctness integration of technologies and architectures have been successfully achieved.
•The integration in Urban and Regional demonstrators respectively of the technologies implemented, as well as the technologies implemented by the Safe4Rail-3 project has been successfully achieved. Apart from that, all the designed tests cases have been executed fulfilling also this objective.
The fulfilment of these objectives has allowed to validate the suitability of these technologies, as well as detecting in laboratory demonstrators the difficulties to scale the TRL in upcoming phases of TD1.2. The summary of the detected gaps of difficulties to be handles in CONNECTA-3 project are:
•Some important standards of TSN are still being defined, delaying the final specification, which slows down their adoption in the market
•Configuration tools for all TSN protocols (e.g. IEEE 802.QBV IEEE 802.1CB) not available yet in the market due to external companies roadmap timings.
•The progress of the standardization of AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform especially towards the deterministic execution and safety were not as fast as expected and it has an unclear perspective since depends completely on the external automotive companies’ roadmaps which have not fixed dates.
•Ambiguity in IEC 61375-2-5 and IEC 61375-2-3 standards led to incompatible first development between MOXA-Westermo and MOXA-CAF, as well as in ambiguity in the ECSC interface between ETBN and CCU.
Last but not least, the definition of functions for a standardized DMI has been done, as well as the completion of FOC regarding its visualization.
The work carried out along this Reporting Period has provided the needed experience to amend or complement the specifications of the NG-TCMS for CONNECTA-3 project. With this experience technical input for standardization can be done following the Standardization plan shared with the Shift2Rail JU which includes contributions to:
•CENELEC TR 50542
•IEC 61375 series
•ERA TWG ARCHI
The standardization activities, mainly in the IEC WG43 handling the IEC 61375 series, follow a detailed maintenance plan within the IEC WG3 which plans to provide enough inputs from CONNECTA-2 and from CONNECTA-3 including the validation results of the technologies to be standardized.
In conclusion, the new technologies developed so far by CONNECTA project series reveal that NG-TCMS will play a key role in the future railway system, which will be much more autonomous, connected, environmentally-friendly, cost-efficient and safe.
•The implementation of the evolved T2G and the Application Profiles which will run on top of the FDF has been successfully achieved.
•The specification of test scenarios and test cases for demonstrating the correctness integration of technologies and architectures have been successfully achieved.
•The integration in Urban and Regional demonstrators respectively of the technologies implemented, as well as the technologies implemented by the Safe4Rail-3 project has been successfully achieved. Apart from that, all the designed tests cases have been executed fulfilling also this objective.
The fulfilment of these objectives has allowed to validate the suitability of these technologies, as well as detecting in laboratory demonstrators the difficulties to scale the TRL in upcoming phases of TD1.2. The summary of the detected gaps of difficulties to be handles in CONNECTA-3 project are:
•Some important standards of TSN are still being defined, delaying the final specification, which slows down their adoption in the market
•Configuration tools for all TSN protocols (e.g. IEEE 802.QBV IEEE 802.1CB) not available yet in the market due to external companies roadmap timings.
•The progress of the standardization of AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform especially towards the deterministic execution and safety were not as fast as expected and it has an unclear perspective since depends completely on the external automotive companies’ roadmaps which have not fixed dates.
•Ambiguity in IEC 61375-2-5 and IEC 61375-2-3 standards led to incompatible first development between MOXA-Westermo and MOXA-CAF, as well as in ambiguity in the ECSC interface between ETBN and CCU.
Last but not least, the definition of functions for a standardized DMI has been done, as well as the completion of FOC regarding its visualization.
The work carried out along this Reporting Period has provided the needed experience to amend or complement the specifications of the NG-TCMS for CONNECTA-3 project. With this experience technical input for standardization can be done following the Standardization plan shared with the Shift2Rail JU which includes contributions to:
•CENELEC TR 50542
•IEC 61375 series
•ERA TWG ARCHI
The standardization activities, mainly in the IEC WG43 handling the IEC 61375 series, follow a detailed maintenance plan within the IEC WG3 which plans to provide enough inputs from CONNECTA-2 and from CONNECTA-3 including the validation results of the technologies to be standardized.
In conclusion, the new technologies developed so far by CONNECTA project series reveal that NG-TCMS will play a key role in the future railway system, which will be much more autonomous, connected, environmentally-friendly, cost-efficient and safe.
During the project, the deployment and validation of NG-TCMS specifications were successfully achieved with an overall TRL4/5 for prototypes, as well as the update of specifications with missing/improved parts.
Continuing the standardisation activities initiated in CONNECTA-1 project, a set of technical recommendations and standardisation proposals have been delivered from CONNECTA-2 project. It must be highlighted the participation in standardisation activities with IEC TC9 WG43, as well as the valuable input provided for ERA TWG On-board Modular Architecture for TSI 2022.
Furthermore, CONNECTA-2 has been fully integrated in the structure of Shift2Rail IPs, sharing knowledge and expertise with other on-going actions like X2Rail-1, X2Rail-2, X2Rail-3, Safe4RAIL-2, IMPACT-2, PLASA-2, MOVINGRAIL, FLEX-RAIL and LinX4Rail.
Last but not least, CONNECTA-2 in this RP2 has organised the second meeting of the Advisory Board and the Final event. Additionally, CONNECTA-2 has released the second newsletter of the project and a final dissemination video (available in the website) to achieve bigger audience. Regarding the technical dissemination, CONNECTA-2 has participated along the project with up to 11 conference papers to different conferences (i.e. WCRR2019, TRA2020, 5GWF, EuCAP, ISDIN and WCRR2022)
In order to address these actions, the dedicated WP7 has promoted the active collaboration of all partners, coordinating and handling the dissemination of CONNECTA-2 results during the project lifetime. This included the elaboration of newsletters and brochures, the publication and participation in international conferences, the creation of a dissemination video, the organization of dissemination conferences, the interaction with external experts through Advisory Board meetings, as well as the direct participation in standardization and regulatory bodies.
Continuing the standardisation activities initiated in CONNECTA-1 project, a set of technical recommendations and standardisation proposals have been delivered from CONNECTA-2 project. It must be highlighted the participation in standardisation activities with IEC TC9 WG43, as well as the valuable input provided for ERA TWG On-board Modular Architecture for TSI 2022.
Furthermore, CONNECTA-2 has been fully integrated in the structure of Shift2Rail IPs, sharing knowledge and expertise with other on-going actions like X2Rail-1, X2Rail-2, X2Rail-3, Safe4RAIL-2, IMPACT-2, PLASA-2, MOVINGRAIL, FLEX-RAIL and LinX4Rail.
Last but not least, CONNECTA-2 in this RP2 has organised the second meeting of the Advisory Board and the Final event. Additionally, CONNECTA-2 has released the second newsletter of the project and a final dissemination video (available in the website) to achieve bigger audience. Regarding the technical dissemination, CONNECTA-2 has participated along the project with up to 11 conference papers to different conferences (i.e. WCRR2019, TRA2020, 5GWF, EuCAP, ISDIN and WCRR2022)
In order to address these actions, the dedicated WP7 has promoted the active collaboration of all partners, coordinating and handling the dissemination of CONNECTA-2 results during the project lifetime. This included the elaboration of newsletters and brochures, the publication and participation in international conferences, the creation of a dissemination video, the organization of dissemination conferences, the interaction with external experts through Advisory Board meetings, as well as the direct participation in standardization and regulatory bodies.
CONNECTA-2 project within this period has validated the prototypes for NG-TCMS deployed in RP1. These technologies, such as FDF, DbD and Application Profile based functions suppose a clear step forward beyond the state of the art. For the first time, there exist the building blocks for testing the a TCMS over new cutting edge technologies such as Time Sensitive Networking which may allow to design new applications with lower cycle times while removing train lines. The experience acquired in CONNECTA-2 is not only valid for CONNECTA-3 in order to scale the TRL of such technologies, but it is being used already to define future on-board architectures (e.g. OCORA) and will serve as baseline for upcoming innovative function such as autonomous trains functions.