Itziar Salaberria

Ubiquitous Connected Train Based on Train-to-Ground and Intra-Wagon Communications Capable of Providing on Trip Customized Digital Services for Passengers

During the last years, the application of different wireless technologies has been explored in order to enable Internet connectivity from vehicles. In addition, the widespread adoption of smartphones by citizens represents a great opportunity to integrate such nomadic devices inside vehicles in order to provide new and personalized on trip services for passengers. In this paper, a proposal of communication architecture to provide the ubiquitous connectivity needed to enhance the smart train concept is presented and preliminarily tested. It combines an intra-wagon communication system based on nomadic devices connected through a Bluetooth Piconet Network with a highly innovative train-to-ground communication system. In order to validate this communication solution, several tests and simulations have been performed and their results are described in this paper.

Towards a Broadband Communications Manager to regulate train-to-earth communications

This paper describes an innovative broadband (WiFi) communications manager designed to manage “train-to-earth” communications. This communications manager aims to deal with applications communication needs and make decisions about what applications can communicate in each moment taking into account broadband features, application priorities and train connection states. Currently, as part of the architectures validation, new digital services in the field of railways have been developed and they are being implanted, and some others are being scheduled to be developed.

Wireless Technologies in the Railway: Train-to-Earth Wireless Communications

Since the origins of the railway in the XIX century most of the innovation and deployment efforts have been focused on aspects related to traffic management, driving support and monitoring of the train state (Shafiullah et al., 2007). The aim has been to ensure the safety of people and trains and to meet schedules, in other words, to ensure the railway service under secure conditions. To achieve this it has been necessary to establish a communication channel between the mobile elements (trains, infrastructure reparation machinery, towing or emergency vehicle, and so on) and the earth fixed elements (command posts and stations, signals, tracks, and so on) (Berrios, 2007).

A backup system based on a decentralized positioning system for managing the railway traffic in emergency situations

Railway traffic management is performed in an automatic way using centralized systems based on wired sensors and electronic elements fixed on the tracks. In spite of these systems, called Centralized Traffic Control systems (CTC), are robust and highly available, when they fail the traffic management must be done manually, increasing the probability of accidents due to the occurrence of human errors. We present a backup system for managing the railway traffic in emergency situations in which primary CTC systems do not work properly. The most innovative issue is that it is based on a decentralized positioning system in which each train is responsible of calculating its own position using an on board system based on wireless positioning technologies (GPS) and other on board devices and information sources (such as MEMS gyroscope, maps, ATP, odometer, etc.). Moreover, it combines train-side systems and terrestrial applications that exchange information via a hybrid mobile and radio wireless communications architecture. The system developed, a decentralized backup traffic management system, is the result of the work made during the last four years in collaboration with a railway company of Spain. This system is currently on real deployment phase.

A Novel Software Architecture for the Provision of Context-Aware Semantic Transport Information

The effectiveness of Intelligent Transportation Systems depends largely on the ability to integrate information from diverse sources and the suitability of this information for the specific user. This paper describes a new approach for the management and exchange of this information, related to multimodal transportation. A novel software architecture is presented, with particular emphasis on the design of the data model and the enablement of services for information retrieval, thereby obtaining a semantic model for the representation of transport information. The publication of transport data as semantic information is established through the development of a Multimodal Transport Ontology (MTO) and the design of a distributed architecture allowing dynamic integration of transport data. The advantages afforded by the proposed system due to the use of Linked Open Data and a distributed architecture are stated, comparing it with other existing solutions. The adequacy of the information generated in regard to the specific user’s context is also addressed. Finally, a working solution of a semantic trip planner using actual transport data and running on the proposed architecture is presented, as a demonstration and validation of the system.

Towards a Train-to-Ground and Intra-wagon Communications Solution Capable of Providing on Trip Customized Digital Services for Passengers

The widespread adoption of Smartphone by citizens represents a great opportunity to integrate such nomadic devices inside vehicles in order to provide new on trip personalized digital services for passengers. In this paper a proposal of communication architecture to provide the ubiquitous connectivity needed to enhance the concept of smart train is presented and preliminarily tested. It combines an intra-wagon communication system based on nomadic devices connected through a Bluetooth Piconet Network with a highly innovative train-to-ground communication system.

Towards a Service Based on “Train-to-Earth” Wireless Communications for Remotely Managing the Configuration of Applications Inside Trains

This paper describes a distributed service based on “train-to-earth” wireless communication, which is able to allow maintenance engineers to remotely monitor and update the configuration of the applications running inside a fleet of trains. It is a very useful tool that avoids engineers to move from their offices to trains for doing the maintenance tasks. This service is the result of five years of collaboration with a railway company in the north of Spain. Moreover, it represents the following step after the implantation of an innovative “train-to-earth” communication architecture in this company. Today, both the communications architecture and this service are being tested within the installations of the railway company with successful results.

A Novel Software Architecture for Multimodal Transport Semantic Information Provision Adapted to the User Context

This paper describes a new approach for the management and exchange of information related to multimodal transportation. The publication of transport information as semantic information is established through the development of an ontology for multimodal transport and the design of a distributed architecture which allows the integration of the transport information at data level.

Low Cost and Easy to Deploy Real Time Location System Based in Radio Frequency Identification

Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) provide great benefits to society in safety and can lead to sensitive information to optimize resource planning in public facilities and major events. The current cost of people locator systems and deployment difficulty hinders installation in multiple scenarios despite the potential benefits posed therein. In this paper we present a low cost and easy deployment RTLS based on RFID technology and active tags. The proposed system can be optimal for scenarios where location accuracy is not a key factor, being enough to know an approximation of the position and mainly the presence or absence of a person in the area monitored.

A middleware for dynamic and adaptive vehicle-to-ground communications management

The widespread use of wireless and Internet technologies in transport systems, enables the provision of new intelligent services based on broadband communications between vehicles and traffic control centres (hereinafter vehicle-to-ground communications). There are many broadband management systems but most of them have been designed for non-mobile environments. This result in a poor performance when are used in scenarios where senders or receivers are moving. Such problems appear because environments where transportation systems are deployed present specific issues related to coverage, bandwidth and also a mix of communications networks. In order to tackle these challenges this paper describes and tests a vehicle-to-ground communication middleware that aims to manage communication requests using a dynamic and adaptive approach.