ATCS: Advanced train control system communication architecture and data transmission considerations

American Association of Railroads (AAR) and Railways Association of Canada (RAC) have jointly initiated a study to implement Advanced Train Control System in order to improve efficiency and economics of railroad operations. Communication architecture and mobile radio link data link between the locomotive and the dispatcher office is the most important part of the system, and its design has major implications on the safe operations of railroads. Reliability of data link and its throughput has been of major concern. Simulation techniques have been used successfully in the past and found to be valuable in design of complex systems. This paper describes the results of simulation study carried out in search for a suitable error control technique. For this purpose, Gilbert-Elliot model has been used to represent mobile radio data channel. From this model error files have been produced and viability of error control techniques evaluated. Simple error detection, and error detection/correction codes such as Convolutional, Fire and Reed-Solomon have been evaluated.