Railway Magazine

Success Story DB InfraGO: Automated Acceptance Tests of Railway Signalling Systems

Together with DB InfraGO we built a solution to automate acceptance tests of railway components that use the SCI (Standard Communication Interface) protocol defined by EULYNX and NeuPro.

Success Story
Railway
CANoe
VN5650/VN5240 (ETH/CAN FD)
Testing, Validation & Diagnostics

The Customer

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DB InfraGO operates the largest rail network in Europe with more than 33,000 km of track. It is also the largest station operator in Europe. As part of the EULYNX ­consortium, DB InfraGO is taking a leading part in creating the foundation for digital railway signalling in Germany and Europe.

DB InfraGO

The Challenge

A scalable testing solution for the novel communication protocols SCI (Standard Communication Interface) and RaSTA (Rail Safe Transport Application), as defined by EULYNX and NeuPro, was needed for acceptance tests of railway signalling systems such as light signals, points and level crossings. The testing solution must provide an environment ­simulation (e.g., the ­electronic interlocking), support for additional debugging interfaces that use other ­communication protocols and automatic generation of intelligible test reports. With the push towards digitalization of railway systems, a professionally maintained ­solution must be found quickly.

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The Solution
With CANoe and specific Vector network interfaces, the SCI protocol (including the RaSTA layer) over Ethernet is simulated and analyzed. In a first step, CANoe simulates the device under test (DUT) and its environment as well as the actual SCI ­telegrams over a loopback network interface. Next, the available test specifications are ­translated into executable test cases in vTESTstudio. Due to the simulation of both the DUT and the environment in a single instance of CANoe, the tests are verified without the need for external software or actual hardware (see figure setup A). With the extraction of the simulation of the DUT to external hardware, the final step in creating a solution for ­automated acceptance tests is done. In this project, a second computer running CANoe is used to act as the counterpart (see setup B). In the DB InfraGO test lab, both computers are connected via Vector network interfaces. In addition, ­rudimentary ping tests are performed to verify the ­functionality of the network that manages the secure Ethernet ­communication between the signalling components. For the actual acceptance tests, the respective computer is then exchanged for the real DUT (see setup C).

The Advantages

With its commitment to CANoe, vTESTstudio and related hardware, DB InfraGO has found a solution to automate acceptance tests for EULYNX and NeuPro systems.

  • With CANoe, simulations are easy to implement, and they can be quickly adapted to new requirements
  • Significant time savings due to the use of a powerful test tool that provides the ability to easily simulate and stimulate entire systems
  • CANoe Option Ethernet and dedicated network ­interfaces allow access to Ethernet data and its ­interpretation
  • Support for current and future SCI/RaSTA releases makes the solution future-proof for the European market
  • Easy creation of reusable and shareable test cases in vTESTstudio
  • Expandability of the simulations and tests to include additional network protocols (e.g., CAN/CANopen, MQTT, OPC UA, EtherCAT) and I/Os
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