A Microservices-Based Approach to Designing an Intelligent Railway Control System Architecture

Abstract

The symmetry between customer expectations and operator goals, on one hand, and the digital transition of the railways, on the other hand, is one of the main factors affecting green transport sustainability. The European Train Control System (ETCS) was created to improve interoperability between different railway signaling systems and increase safety and security. While there are a lot of ETCS Level 2 deployments all over the world, the specifications of ETCS Level 3 are under development. ETCS Level 3 is expected to have a significant impact on automatic train operation, protection, and supervision. In this paper, we present an innovative control system architecture that allows the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) applications. The architecture features control function virtualization and programmability. The concept of an intelligent railway controller (IRC) is introduced as being a piece of cloud software responsible for the control and optimization of railway operations. A microservices-based approach to designing the IRC’s functionality is presented. The approach was formally verified, and some of its performance metrics were identified.