Author(s)

S Einer, H Schrom, R Slovák & E Schnieder

Abstract

New trends in train control systems are determined by an increasing use of software. The established high standards in reliability of such safety relevant systems leads therefore to high requirements in software reliability. However, today’s methods in software-engineering are not sufficient to avoid software- failures completely, if excessive tests are not performed. Testing the software in real applications of train control is mostly to large-scaled and also not flexible enough in providing certain operational conditions which are required for testing. Otherwise using only a software environment in testing does not allow realistic results in respect to the implementation. To bridge the gap, testing by using a realistic hardware model could be a golden means for solving these problems efficiently. To evaluate this possibility, a modular model railway has been realised at the Technical University Braunschweig in Germany achieving the purpose of software-validation in train control applications. The operation served by the model railway is the safety process of train passing a radio controlled level crossing. To test the software which realise this operation, the needed behaviour has to be specified exactly. Furthermore an effective concept is needed to meet all requirements in testing, especially the separation of environmental and essential aspects respective the separation in non-realistic and realistic aspects of the railway model. Following the identified tasks, the contribution contains three main parts. At first the specification of the operational process of the specific train control system is given. Secondly a functional concept of hardware railway model for software-validation is introduced and last practical solutions to fit this concept are shown by introducing the state of realisation of the railway model.

Keywords