Availability and Performance Analysis of Train-to-Train Data Communication System

Communication-based train control (CBTC) systems are widely applied in the world. The primary functions are carried out by wireless communications, which implement the communication between train and ground. However, this kind of solution involves too many subsystems and interfaces, which makes the group equipment complex and expensive to maintain. What is more, once the ground control center or the communication channel is out of service, the train must operate in degraded modes, and more human factors will be involved. As a result, the efficiency and safety of the train operation will be affected. In order to significantly increase efficiency and safety, train-to-train (T2T) communication is proposed as a new solution for railway signaling. Hence, the availability and performance analysis of the direct T2T data communication system is essential. In this paper, the system structure is described, and different parameters that can affect the performance of the communication system are discussed. In order to evaluate the system availability and performance, the stochastic Petri nets (SPNs) are applied to formalize the communication system. The numerical analysis is carried out with different parameters, which consider both bit error and transmission rates. The results show that the method applied in this paper can be used to evaluate the performance and availability of the T2T data communication system.