Algorithmic Decomposition of Railway Objects for Distributed Interlocking System

Abstract

Railway interlocking systems can be implemented as distributed systems, where each part of a station is handled by a separate logical unit. The logical units of such systems form a network and communicate by interchanging messages. Such distributed architectures are well known in large industrial control systems. There are several design practices and also algorithmic task partitioning methods that are applicable in distributed control systems. Some of such methods can also be adapted in designing of railway interlocking systems as well. In the case of such systems, the communication time between components must be kept low. Namely each separate controller in a given route must be able to exchange their internal state within a limited time in order to permit the train movement authorization. This limitation could cause high traffic load, if every logical unit would be interconnected with each other. Therefore, the main goal of the minimization is to reduce the number of connections between logical units. This can achieved by distributing and assigning the topological railway objects to certain logical units.