Signalling & TCN

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Railway Traffic Safety highlights the need to regulate and control the movement of trains in order to avoid cases such as derailments or collisions. Railway signalling is the set of devices, equipment and subsystems that allow the management of train traffic, ensuring safety and punctuality.

The laboratories of Italcertifer S.p.A. have qualified personnel and the necessary instrumentation to perform tests on technological on-board systems and on trackside signalling equipment in the railway sector, in accordance with national and international reference standards.

On-Board Technological Systems (or Onboard Subsystems) fall into the category of CCS systems, i.e. Control, Command and Signalling Systems and are classified as Class A Systems (ERTMS/ETCS, European Railway Signalling System) and Class B Systems (SCMT, Sistema di Controllo della Marcia del Treno[1]).

Italcertifer Laboratories have the know-how and instrumentation necessary to perform tests on On-Board Technological Systems and on trackside signalling equipment in the railway sector in accordance with the national and international standards of reference for both classes, in particular:

Tests on on-board technological systems are carried out according to the RFI TC.PATC ST CM 03 E23D specification, in compliance with the requirements of the ANSF decree 1/2016 and according to the TSI CCS. The tests concern all the equipment making up an On-Board Technological System, such as:

On-Board Subsystem which can be presented in a stand-alone SCMT version, in a version integrated with the SSC functionalities or as a National System module integrated in the SSB ERTMS/ETCS;
Tests on Radio Cab, voice radio system;
Tests on RCEC, running behaviour events recorder system.

The Measurements of the Signal to Noise Ratio – an accredited test according to FS Specification no. 371425 esp. 0.0 and according to RFI TC.PATC ST CM 03 E19 C - Paragraph 7.1.2 – are measurements carried out to determine the maximum disturbance allowed on the sensors of the RSC equipment in the SSB SCMT. The electronic equipment and the traction motors installed on board the railway traction vehicles can generate electromagnetic disturbances which, induced on the sensors of the RSC equipment, disturb the regular capture of the codes present on the Ground Sub-System of the national railway lines SCMT. Italcertifer Laboratories are the only ones in the world with AC Tests on ground signaling products (such as LEU or SCMT encoder).

Italcertifer S.p.A. Laboratories have a simulation technology environment, accredited according to UNI CEI ISO/IEC 17025 by the Italian accreditation body Accredia, to perform tests according to ERA UNISIG Subset 076 on ERTMS/ETCS on-board equipment.

The simulation environment, named "ITCF-EuroSV," implements a real-time type of architecture capable of indoor reproduction of the EVC stress conditions respecting all the requirements prescribed by the ERA UNISIG Subset 094 standard allowing, through the execution of tests defined in ERA UNISIG Subset 076, the verification of the correct implementation of the SSB ETCS/ERTMS functionalities defined in ERA UNISIG Subset 026.

The Italcertifer laboratory is a member of the ERTMS Accredited Labs (EAL) association, which groups European laboratories accredited to UNI CEI ISO/IEC 17025, and actively participates in the Working Group ERA UNISIG Subset 076

The Train Communication Network (TCN) is the infrastructure that allows the transmission of data within the trains through a hierarchical structure on N°2 network levels: a WTB (Wire Train Bus) backbone for data transmission along the whole train and a lower level MVB (Multifunction Vehicle Bus)/Ethernet backbone for the connection with the different devices inside the single vehicle.

The Italcertifer S.p.A. Laboratory is the only UIC-certified "Independent Railway Homologated Lab" (https://uic.org/IMG/pdf/uic_556_-_annex_g.5_2.pdf) to perform the tests described in Annex H of the UIC standard for verification of WTB gateway functionality.

Italcertifer's TCN testbed is certified to perform TTC1 (Test Train Configuration 1) and TTC2 (Test Train Configuration 2) tests, which include:

Coupling and decoupling of nodes
Turning nodes on and off
Verification of node redundancy

The Italcertifer laboratory is equipped with a technological environment capable of performing tests described in the ERA UNISIG Subset-085 and ERA UNISIG Subset-036 standards on Eurobalise, BTM and LEU under all operating conditions required by the specification.

Italcertifer's equipment and automatic control systems allow to perform tests to verify Telepowering/Uplink flows and to evaluate the characteristics of the interfaces used for telegram transmission (Interface "A" and Interface "C").