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In this paper we perform a model-based analysis of the Timed Reliable Communication (TRC) protocol, which is being used within the EU funded ALARP project for railway worksite communication. TRC is a group communication protocol based on IEEE 802.11 networks, targeting safety-critical applications with limited bandwidth requirements. The paper contains an in-depth analysis of the performance and reliability characteristics of the protocol using a Stochastic Activity Networks model. The results are first compared with available experimental measurements for the sake of model validation. The validated model is then used for a thorough analysis of a set of key metrics under different environment and network conditions. The obtained results allow: i) to assess that the protocol allows to satisfy the ALARP targeted performance and reliability requirements, and ii) to evaluate the existing tradeoffs and help in choosing parameter values for the final implementation.

Industrial and safety-critical applications pose strict requirements for timeliness and reliability for the communication solution. Thereby the use of off-the-shelf (OTS) wireless communication technologies can be attractive to achieve low cost and easy deployment. This paper presents and analyses a protocol and its analytical model, enabling to configure for explicit timeliness and message reliability requirements under different link technologies and conditions. We assess the timing behavior and reliability properties studying a scenario of distributing safety-critical alerts. Our evaluation covers selfdeployed networks based on 868 MHz XBee communication and EDGE/UMTS cellular infrastructure networks. Link measurements are conducted using OTS components. The experimental tests show good results for the considered long-range practical scenarios, supporting our approach of using an analytical model and link measurements to contribute to a (self-)configurable timed reliable protocol deployed on multiple technologies.