Wireless Communication System Design for Point Machine Detection and Monitoring in Railways

Abstract

This paper reports on a wireless communication system that is used in railways to instantly detect and continuously monitor point machine positions. Also, with the system the position information is transmitted wirelessly to a train driver. The designed system is composed of TX and RX units. It has a compact structure and is fully modular. The TX unit of the system is placed near the railway point machines and the RX unit is located on a train. The designed system was constructed, and measurements were obtained on-site. Results show that the system point machine position data were accurately transmitted at 1350 m range which is much longer than the safe braking distance of a train. In addition, the measured 1 s data sampling time of the system allows the driver to continuously monitor current RPM positions as well as state changes. The maximum delay was found to be 3 s in the limit range of the communication. It is found that the system has a low power consumption and the designed system can work for long hours. The findings indicate that the designed wireless communication system has a high potential to be used in railways to prevent accidents and contribute to the overall safety and efficiency of operations.