Architecture Design and Reliability Evaluation of a Novel Software-Defined Train Control System

Abstract

Communication-based train control (CBTC) has been the prevailing technology of the urban transit signaling system. However, CBTC also faces a few issues to extend and maintain because of its complicated structure. This paper presents a novel urban transit signaling system architecture, software-defined train control (SDTC), which is based on cloud and high-speed wireless communication technology. The core functions of the proposed SDTC, including the onboard controller, are implemented in the cloud platform, with only sensors and input–output (IO) units remaining on the trackside and the train. Because of the scalable framework, the system function can be expanded according to the user’s demand, making signaling as a service possible. With warm standby server redundancy, SDTC has better reliability. Compared with the traditional CBTC architecture, the mean time between failures is improved by 39% by calculating typical project parameters by the Markov model based on some assumptions.

Keywords

Communication-based train control (CBTC) / Software-defined / Train control / Cloud computing / System architecture / Reliability

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Funding

National Key Research and Development Program of China(2018YFB1201403)

Research Program of Shanghai Science and Technology Committee(18DZ2202600)