DSRC-Enabled Train Safety Communication System at Unmanned Crossings

Although wireless technology is available for safety-critical applications, few applications have been used to improve train crossing safety. To prevent potential collisions between trains and vehicles, we present a Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC)-enabled train safety communication system targeting passive crossings. Since our application’s purpose is preventing collisions between trains and vehicles, we present a method to calculate the minimum required warning time for head-to-head collision. We therefore define the best and worst-case scenarios and provide empirical data collected at six operating crossings in the U.S. with numerous system configurations, including modulation scheme, transmission power, antenna type, train speed, and vehicle braking distances. From our measurements, we find that the warning application coverage range is independent of the train speed, that the omnidirectional antenna with high transmission power is the best configuration for our system, and that the communications latency is less than 1 ms on average and around 5 m worst case. We use the radio communication coverage and introduce the safeness level metric to evaluate the suitability of DSRC for collision avoidance. From the measured data, we observe that the DSRC-enabled train safety communication system is feasible for up to 35 mph train speeds which is providing more than 25–30 s to avoid a collision for 25–65 mph vehicle speeds. Higher train speeds are expected to be safe, but additional data over extended distances are needed for a definite conclusion.