In DEWI, the proposed solutions are focused in two ways. The first one is to collect important data related to train integrity and train composition, which can be used by the ERTMS (European rail transport management system) onboard equipment in order to use Level 3. On the other hand, the DEWI Rail Domain proposes novel solutions to ease the freight management.

With these proposed solutions it is possible to achieve other inherent  goals like energy harvesting, energy efficiency, environment protection,  introduction of non-wired technology in the Rail Domain, cost reduction  of infra-structure installations, etc. Furthermore, wireless technologies in the rail domain may ease maintenance, reduce installation costs, or increase the safety level for some application or systems.

However, important challenges have to be analyzed and mastered:

• How to achieve of a high safety integrity level in communication with non-wired devices.
• How to design very low energy consumption devices.
• How to design plug & play devices to ease the operation and the maintenance.
• How to store all collected data and keep it available to the systems.

These challenges are only a few examples of the difficulties to be overcome.

For both, collecting data and managing freight trains, the approach is the same. A WSN will be deployed along the different wagons or locomotives of a train, which will send the data (freight, train composition or train integrity) to a gateway. This gateway is responsible to store and manage the collected data, sending it to the system which requires information.

In the Rail Domain, four Use Cases have been proposed:

• Use Case 4.1: Train Integrity Detection System: This system has the clear functionality, to ensure the completeness of the train.
• Use Case 4.2: Train composition Detection System: This system shall be able to collect important variables of the train, like the length or the weight in order to be used by the on board units.
• Use Case 4.3: Smart Integration Platform: This is a platform able to store and manage the collected data from sensors in order to provide it to train systems.
• Use Case 4.5: WSN for freight advanced monitoring and management: This comprises a system for freight monitoring in goods transport and a system for freight monitoring optimized in underground worksites.

In the Rail Domain, all use cases have its own demonstrators.

• In case of UC4.1 Train Integrity Detection System both, real and laboratory tests are expected. In the laboratory tests, the whole system will be tested in simulated environment on test beds.  After the laboratory tests the system will be tested, validated and assessed in real-life moc-kup-demonstration on a tourist train controlling the integrity of a train by monitoring the completeness of a train composition.
• In case of UC4.2 Train composition Detection System laboratory tests will be carried out over a simulated environment.
• For UC4.3 Smart Integration Platform the demonstrator will be carried out in laboratory, but the Smart integration Platform will be used in the real demonstration because it is part of the system developed in UC4.1.
• In UC 4.5 WSN for freight advanced monitoring and management finally, a laboratory demonstrator will be developed to test the Freight monitoring system designed.

The following deliverables have already been released from Rail Domain:

For WP4.0, Rail Domain management:

• DEWI Deliverable D400.001 “Project Plan for the RAIL domain”.
• DEWI Deliverable D400.002 “1st Year Progress Report SP4”

For WP4.1, Train Integrity Detection System:

• DEWI Deliverable D401.002 “Analysis of interaction/interferences with other facilities and train equipment”
• DEWI Deliverable D401.003 “Wireless requirements analysis and technology evaluation”

For WP4.2, Train Composition Detection System:

• DEWI Deliverable D402.001 “Detailed specifications for Smart Train Composition Detection System”
• DEWI Deliverable D402.002 “Wireless requirements analysis and technology evaluation”

For WP4.3, Smart Integration Platform:

• DEWI Deliverable D403.001 “Detailed Specification of the generic WSN Smart Integration Platform”

For WP4.5, Freight Management System:

• DEWI Deliverable D405.001 “Detailed Specification for WSN for Freight Advanced Monitoring and Management System”
• DEWI Deliverable D405.002 “Wireless requirements analysis and technology evaluation”.

For WP4.6, Interoperability of Requirements and specifications:

• DEWI Deliverable D406.001“Technology Items cross-use and cross-domain interoperability requirements and specifications in RAIL domain”.