| railML 3 infrastructure model [message #550] |
Tue, 04 February 2014 22:06  |
Christian Rahmig
Messages: 151
Registered: January 2011
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Senior Member |
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Dear railML infrastructure community,
some of you may have already noticed the website about the initialized
development of railML 3.0 (cp. [1]). With this thread, I want to
communicate the current state to all of you, railML infrastructure users
and developers, who yet don't know what's new with railML 3.0.
Why do we need railML 3? In the past years, resulting from discussions
in the forum as well as from application examples, we discovered some
infrastructure elements and parameters, which are difficult to define in
the railML 2.x model. Some of these aspects have been transformed into
Trac tickets that can be found in [2]. The underlaying topology is
considered to be a central problem as it is not flexible enough for a
modular modelling of coordinates and track elements.
Last year, the railML partner TrafIt (cf. [3]) analysed the requirements
for a generic railway topology model considering the requirements of all
the different stakeholders and their applications as well as existing
model examples. This feasibility study was assigned and financed by the
UIC and the result has been presented at the 24th railML.org conference
in Paris on September 18, 2013 (cp.[4]). The final report of this study
is available at [5].
Based on the results of the feasibility study, the French infrastructure
manager RFF, together with the Belgium infrastructure manager Infrabel,
initiated the development of a first version for a generic railway
topology model. I reviewed the development process as the railML
infrastructure coordinator. The result named as UIC RailTopoModel, which
is documented in [6], can be considered more as a first than a final
version of a new railway topology approach. Now it is up to all of you
to discuss the model here in the forum. It is our aim to create a
solution that all of you can understand, support and apply, and
therefore we need your feedback on the development. Please share it with
the community here in the forum.
What is the UIC RailTopoModel? This model is a topology approach based
on a "connexity graph" as described in [7]. Simplified, this "connexity
graph" is a node-edge-model where nodes and edges are both modelled as
"NetElements" linked by "Connections". The node-edge-model itself is a
common concept of graph theory (cf. [8]). A major concern of the model,
which has been already pointed out in the feasibility study, is the
generic character of the topology model providing the same structure for
different levels of detail. Further, the different levels of detail
should be convertible using aggregation methods.
The UIC RailTopoModel is considered to be one central component of the
railML 3.0 infrastructure model. However, the railway network's topology
is only one part of the basic layer, while the coordinate positions,
which are required by many applications focusing on geometry or
visualization, form the other part. Last, but not least, we should not
forget that there are also applications, which may exchange
infrastructure data without both coordinates and topology, based on
railML. Therefore, the UIC RailTopoModel is only one component of the
future railML 3.0 infrastructure approach, although a very central one.
Considering its importance, we should discuss about it alltogether.
Thank you and best regards
Christian
[1] http://railml.org//index.php/railml3-entwicklung.html
[2]
http://trac.railml.org/query?version=3.0&col=id&col= summary&col=status&col=owner&col=type&col=pr iority&col=milestone&order=priority
[3] http://railml.org//index.php/entwickler.html?show=48
[4]
http://documents.railml.org/events/slides/2013-09-17_uic_nis si-erim_presentation.pdf
[5]
http://railml.org/tl_files/railML.org/documents/science/2709 13_trafIT_FinalReportFeasibilityStudyRailTopoModel.pdf
[6]
http://railml.org/tl_files/railML.org/documents/science/2012 13_UIC_RailTopoModel_DraftDec13.pdf
[7] http://library.witpress.com/pages/PaperInfo.asp?PaperID=1975 9
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_(mathematics)
--
Christian Rahmig
railML.infrastructure coordinator
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