• What railway assets can be consistently and reliably monitored using our deployed fibre cable infrastructure and wireless signals present across the network?

• What is required to provide effective trackside connectivity for supporting railway sensors and IoT?

• Informed choice of technologies for remote powering of sensor networking devices using communication technologies e.g. wireless, fibre etc.

• Determine design and performance of condition monitoring predictive analytics.

• Determine approaches and expected performance of data fusion and data analytics for creating “trusted” data (high SIL) reporting capability from varied networked sensor inputs (low SIL).

• Design and performance expectations from candidate power harvesting technologies for sensors and communication devices.

The overall scope of the challenge is to explore the potential of distributed sensing in our deployed fibre infrastructure and potential sensing applications of wireless signals present in the railway environment e.g. GSM-R, 3G, and 4G. The other envisioned activities are networking, data fusion of diverse sensor data and databases information, and use of predictive data analytics for reliable and consistent rail infrastructure monitoring. The other areas of investigation should address how to process vast amounts of generated data and provide reports which are reliable and actionable status reports. Technologies for remote powering of sensor networking devices using communication technologies e.g. fibre, wireless signals, and power harvesting technologies are also considered as important enablers for ensuring effective sensor usage in terms of longevity, ‘up-time’, safety and environmental factors relating to batteries.

• Economic, effective and scalable (infrastructure-wide) RCM of rail assets.• High reliability and trusted sensor outputs through data fusion and predictive

analytics.• “Digital Railway” benefits and realisation through INFRANET realisation.• Reductions in cost of asset ownership and maintenance.• Schedule 8 payments reduction.

• Network-wide RCM deployment using current RCM approaches is uneconomic & unmanageable. (14, 33, 34)

• Varied & localised RCM systems use creates network connectivity, data analytics, and safety challenges. Also, results in high operational, maintenance and management overheads. (20,22,26, 31, 33, 37, 38)

• High reliance on 3rd parties providing stand alone RCM services. (36)

• Economic and scalable (infrastructure-wide) RCM of rail assets.

• High reliability and trusted sensor outputs through data fusion and predictive analytics.

• “Digital Railway” benefits through INFRANET realisation.

• Schedule 8 payments reduction through enabling proactive maintenance.

• Exploit network-wide telecom infrastructure e.g. fibres, mobile etc., to provide cost-effective RCM “INFRANET” (Rail Internet of Things) for rail assets.

• Exploit varied RCM inputs & advanced predictive data analytics to create “trusted” (high SIL) from varied networked sensor inputs (low SIL).

• Remote powering of sensor networking devices using communication technologies e.g. wireless, fibre etc.

Specific priority problems BenefitsRelated goals

Telecoms - Exploiting the Telecoms Networkto Improve Remote Condition Monitoring

What is the situation?

Priority problems & goals

Scope

To address these challenges it is expected that R&D actions will need to address the following aspects:

Specific research needs

Expected impact& benefits

Our challenge is to contribute to the improvement of the rail industry’s operational efficiency, reliability, and safety whilst driving down passenger and freight transportation costs.

An important enabler for achieving this goal is to have “intelligent” infrastructure using network-wide Remote Condition Monitoring (RCM) for rail assets.

At present, localised RCM is used at high-risk sites with bespoke solutions. These solutions have comparatively high operational, maintenance and management overheads, making them uneconomic and un-scalable for infrastructure-wide roll-out. Thus there is a need for the development of novel cost-effective and pervasive RCM solutions.

A potential approach is to use our extensive telecom network as a sensor system for RCM i.e. railway infrastructure network (INFRANET). This could include the use of trackside optical fibre-cable infrastructure (> 16,000 km) and wireless signals (GSM-R and WSN, offering over 3,000 points of presence) to provide infrastructure-wide continuous condition monitoring. Other advantages of this are inherent secure connectivity and ease of integration with advanced predictive data analytics for accurate and reliable condition monitoring. System level integration with other sensor systems could also be carried to exploit data fusion and advanced analytics to create “trusted” (high SIL) decisions from varied networked sensor inputs (low SIL). This approach will also enable the realisation of a Railway Infranet Sensor System Network (RISSN) aka a railway Internet of Things (IoT).

Analysis of causes

RCM Challenges

RCM Challenges

Un-scalable &uneconomic RCM

Rock-fall

Subsidence

Landslip

Tree fall

Track-side structure failures

Bridge strike

Civil structures integrity

Animal, Vehicle etc incursion

Trespass

Level crossings

Theft

Train location & movement(speed & direction)

Train condition e.g. wheel-flat

Sensors & Networking Challenges

Data Challenges

Localised sensors

Powering

Maintenance

Trust, privacy & security

Mobile connectivity & BW

Fixed-line connectivity

Trustworthy data

Signal processing

Data analytics e.g. predictive

External data usage

data storage

Processing time

Trusted decisions & visualisation

Rail Performance Challenges

Business Challenges

Harsh environment

Train speed restrictions

Slow / limited response

Capacity & service impact

Safety impact

Reliability

High cost

Schedule 8 payments

Emerging standards

Reliance on 3rd parties

Reputation impact

Implementation time

Operational lifeBusiness change towards

technology & local solutions

Sensors

MNONetworks

ConnectedTrain

RailInformation

Rail Data CentreExternal Data &App Developers External Access

Management

WWW

Passengers

NRT Ubiquitous IP Network

Network Edge Processing and Storage

NRT Trackside IP Sub-Access Layer (Wired/Wireless)

Actuators

Earthwork failures £24,598,299

CP4 Delay Mins. Cost Impact (T&I Benefit Calculator Data)

Level crossing £10,691,262

Animals £13,835,219

Cable vandalism/theft £82,290,687

Trespass £103,178,945

CP4 Delay Mins. Cost Impact (T&I Benefit Calculator Data)

Plant, Traction& Rolling Stock Geotechnical

S&C

E&P Tunnels

Buildings

RCMBridges Track