Research project tested interoperability for ICT systems in rail freight transport

At the end of March, the FFG-funded project Integrating the Railway System Cargo Q(IRS Cargo) was successfully completed. Together with the Association of the Railway Industry and the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, an interdisciplinary research team of the FHTW from the competence fields Software Engineering & Architecture (Department Computer Science) and Medical Engineering & Integrated Healthcare (Department Life Science Engineering) developed a procedure (IRS methodology) for the application of interoperable, automated and manufacturer-independent data exchange between ICT systems in the railroad sector.

This was based on know-how from established processes in the healthcare sector (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprises (IHE)) and the energy sector (Integrating the Energy Systems (IES)). The test framework “Gazelle” was investigated with regard to its usability for interoperability tests in rail freight transport. Gazelle is primarily used in Connectathon test events to record and validate messages exchanged between different software solutions of the test participants.

It was found that Gazelle can be used for interoperability testing in rail freight, but limitations were observed based on the specific transmission protocols used. For the “Path Application and Path Allocation” profile, Gazelle can be used without restrictions because the protocol underlying the profile uses XML as a data representation and can thus be implemented at a sufficiently high network layer. Gazelle cannot be used natively for the “train baptism” profile because train baptism describes communication paths that take place at a lower network layer (data link layer in the ISO/OSI model). At this layer, the network nodes are not addressed in IP space and thus no connection to Gazelle can be established via TCP/IP. However, validations of (binary) messages could be handled “offline” (e.g. as file uploads) in Gazelle. For this purpose, Gazelle provides a special transformation step which transforms binary-encoded data into an XML representation. This can be tested in a subsequent step with the usual schema and schematron checking rules.

The added value of the IRS methodology lies in the standardized representation of the interfaces, based on the European regulations.

As a result, a white paper was written describing the sector-neutral interoperability process (see graphic) developed in order to be able to apply this methodology in other sectors in the future.