The arrival of rail transportation in the 19th century launched an unprecedented era of growth and prosperity. Over a hundred years later, rail traffic continues to be an important mode of transportation. In order to maintain real-time traffic management and surveillance systems, modern rapid transit systems are deploying more and more equipment such as TIS (Transportation Information System), PLC, Traffic Controllers, AFC (Automatic Fare Collection), IP phones, and IP Video cameras. In the transportation field, many device and control level products have turned to TCP/IP networks as the main transmission media for equipment data and signals in order to benefit from lower installation costs and greater system centralization.
Application Requirements
Authorities rely heavily on intelligent transportation systems (ITS) for centralized management of all traffic controls across an entire metropolitan area. In particular, they need the system to handle harsh environmental conditions. Therefore, the network must be highly reliable and free of any external interference. The devices used in ITS are usually able to connect to Moxa industrial Ethernet switches.
TIS (Transportation Information System) can be controlled through touch screen user interface in control center. The TIS may have following functions: destination and vehicle number display, schedule display and public information display…etc.
PLCs are well-adapted to a range of automation tasks. In rail transportation system, the PLC is designed for multiple inputs and output arrangements, extended temperature ranges, immunity to electrical noise, and resistance to vibration and impact.
Traffic controllers are responsible for the effective and secure operation of a railway within an assigned operating territory. They ensure railway capacity is maximized by applying effective planning, scheduling and queuing techniques.
AFC (Automatic Fare Collection) is a revenue collection system, which requires the passenger to purchase a ticket and use it to permit access to or from the rapid transit systems. AFC reduces the demand for ticket checking staff and helps prevent fraud in ITS.
IP surveillance monitoring requires the simultaneous transmission of video, voice, and data over a single network, which means that using bandwidth efficiently is particularly important if surveillance systems are to achieve real-time monitoring in ITS.
Network Solutions
With the large volume of data, video, and even voice that must be transmitted, light railway networks require enough bandwidth to ensure real-time monitoring and response. Because of the high bandwidth and anti-vibration environment required, the ITS is very proper to install a gigabit fiber optic network that uses specialized industrial rackmount switch. The system's backbone relies on Moxa's IKS-6726 rackmount Ethernet switch with a fiber-optic Gigabit Turbo Ring. Fiber-optic communication is the best choice due to the long distance and high bandwidth requirements, and the Turbo Ring topology provides media redundancy and network recovery in less than 20 ms.
As shown in the diagram, rackmount Ethernet switches radiate from the backbone network to the stations that require traffic contro
l and monitoring. Each node uses an IKS-6324 to connect six sub-systems: facility monitoring, traffic control, AFC, TIS, PLC, and Data Acquisition. All devices in a transportation system should be accessible for monitoring and control over a single network. Except for the power supply system, all of the sub-systems are linked by the network infrastructure to provide seamless communication.
Benefits from Moxa
Moxa Industrial Ethernet Switches are specially designed for rail traffic and city light railway transport applications. Our considerable experience in these environments and rigidity of reliability design guarantees both low life cycle costs and high product longevity.
Moxa's IKS series provides ONE network solution by integrating IP camera, TIS, AFC, and traffic controller in a converged Network.
Durable network architecture with almost instant recovery time.
Industrial certifications such as UL508, NEMA TS2, and EN50155.
Rugged mechanical design ensures a tight connection to keep the Ethernet Switch running nonstop, even when subjected to incessant vibration.
The scalable modular design for easy upgrade and expansion at the network, server, and device level.
