Performance Evaluation of a Multi-radio, Multi-hop Ad-hoc Radio Communication Network for Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC)

Abstract

Document VersionAbstract-Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) is a modern signalling system that uses radio communication to transfer train control information between the train and the wayside. A vast majority of CBTC systems worldwide use IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi as the radio technology mostly due to its costeffectiveness. The trackside networks in these systems are mostly based on conventional infrastructure Wi-Fi. It means a train has to continuously associate (i.e. perform handshake) with the trackside Wi-Fi Access Points (AP) as it moves. This is a timeconsuming process associated with a certain delay. Additionally, these APs are connected to the wayside infrastructure via optical fiber cables that incurs huge costs. This paper presents a novel design in which trackside nodes function in ad-hoc Wi-Fi mode, which means no association has to be performed with them prior to transmitting. A train simply broadcasts packets to any nodes in its range. A node upon receiving these packets forwards them to the next node and so on, forming a chain of nodes. Following this chain, packets arrive at the destination. To make the design resilient against interference, transmissions are separated on multiple frequencies. Furthermore, redundancy is introduced in the design as a node forwards packets to not only one but two of its neighbors. This paper investigates the performance of the new design from the perspective of resiliency, redundancy and scalability, and presents the results both from a field experiment carried out using prototype hardware and an extensive simulations study.

Communication systems of high‐speed railway: A survey

“…The traffic control center at the wayside as a part of this system receives the information sent by the trains on the track then calculates two factors: maximum speed and distance that the train is allowed to proceed. The traffic control center also performs many other functions, such as trains scheduling and trains arrival time to destination 26 . CBTC system contains multiple Wi‐Fi APs to ensure a continuous connection.…”

“…The second challenge is the handover process, train ought to be connected to an AP all the time and as it moves should find a new suitable AP. Scanning, authentication, and re‐association are the stages of the handover process in according to IEEE 802.11 26 …”

The Function Design for the Communication-based Train Control (CBTC) System: How to Solve the Problems in the Underground Mine Rail Transportation?

“…For the above-ground Urban Rail Transit, the CBTC(Communication-based Train Control) system is a common signal control system in the Urban Rail Transit System [7]. Admittedly, CBTC system is not perfect either, but with the maturity and development of Internet of things technology, the combination of CBTC system and Internet of things technology makes the CBTC system develop, which has become an academic consensus [8].…”

Optimal data collection of multi-radio multi-channel multi-power wireless sensor networks for structural monitoring applications: A simulation study

“…Addressing these drawbacks, some researchers investigated multi‐radio multi‐channel (MR‐MC) WSNs to realize the full‐duplex communication and significantly improve network capacity . Nevertheless, the existing research mainly focuses on resource‐rich ad hoc and mesh networks, and the protocol is too complicated to be implemented in low‐cost WSNs . Few researches were aimed at the MR‐MC WSN with limited resources .…”

“…28,29 Nevertheless, the existing research mainly focuses on resource-rich ad hoc and mesh networks, and the protocol is too complicated to be implemented in low-cost WSNs. [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] Few researches were aimed at the MR-MC WSN with limited resources. 39,40 But their main goal is to improve the end-to-end data communication efficiency, which is not suitable for the scenario of intensive data collection.…”