Sim4Rail

The Sim4Rail activity aims to specify and develop highly controllable laboratory tools for a testbed to test and support the development of PNT (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) technologies for railway signalling including applications in the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) / European Train Control System (ETCS). The testbed will support testing under both nominal and extreme conditions, including support for fault-injection testing. 

The test-bed is intended to complement field testing, allowing conditions that are statistically unlikely to be observed in the field to be simulated in a highly controlled and repeatable environment. 

The objective of this activity is to develop a GNSS railway simulation test-bed to support testing and development of GNSS receiver technologies for use in railway applications. The simulation testbed is comprised of:

• Software for scenario generation and playback, including control of laboratory equipment;
• A software PNT platform including a software GNSS receiver and sensor integration (from simulated sensor sources);
• Software tools for analysing GNSS performances (figures of merit); and
• Hardware including GNSS signal generation, RF recording and playback equipment.

In addition to development of the simulation testbed, the project focuses on the characterisation, modelling and simulation of feared events, as well as validation of the simulated outputs.

USERS AND THEIR NEEDS

The target users are companies that have in their core business the development of GNSS-based technologies or applications for railway. Sim4Rail provides a modular testbed with well-defined interfaces, allowing users to perform testing and evaluate performances at different levels from algorithms to hardware in the loop.

BENEFITS

Benefits of this testbed include the capability to perform testing of equipment under both nominal and extreme conditions, including support for fault-injection testing. The testbed complements field testing, allowing conditions that are statistically unlikely to be observed in the field to be simulated in a highly controlled and repeatable environment. 

FEATURES

This simulation testbed consists of four major building blocks (see figure below):

1. GSGF (GNSS Scenario Generation Function):  The GSGF  is a software to setup and manage scenarios to simulate the motion of a train.
2. SPCF (Scenario Playback Control Function):  the SPCF is a software designed to playback the simulated GNSS RF signal.
3. SPP (Software PNT Platform):  The SPP is a software platform implementing a GNSS receiver for testing advanced integrity algorithms.
4. PAF (Performance Analysis Function):  The PAF is a software component that allows for the evaluation of the performance of the equipment under test (i.e. the software PNT platform or a real target railway PNT platform), using the ground truth associated with a specific scenario.

STATUS

The Sim4Rail project has reached the Preliminary Design Review milestone, defining the software architecture and interfaces, confirming feasibility of the design. 

Last updated date: 14 January 2019