Axle Counters are vital equipment’s in Indian Railways and their failure will affect the punctuality of the trains, the reason for their failure could be numerous factors but one of the main factor being the communication medium between the digital axle counters which is predominately on quad cable, quad has its own inherent issues such as low insulation, EMI / EMC interferences in RE area, multiple cuts, theft etc.
By using an alternative medium (OFC / E1(STM) which are more stable increases the reliability manifold of their working.
Indian railways has a well-established SDH network nearly across its route km traveling where in we can use an E1 circuit of the STM or existing spare optical fiber or dedicated optical fiber which is laid for IBH / IBS working or for any other purpose.
The highlight of the solution is converting the legacy interface of digital axle counter (modem output) though FABIO 2CX to directly interface with dedicated E1 (STM) or optical interface with automatic change-over to any alternative medium without affecting the working of the digital axle counter thus increasing the reliability manifold of these vital circuits.
- Path 1 (E1 (STM) / Path 2 (Quad) / Path 3 (Quad: if HA SSDAC) multiple protection
The above connectivity between stations shows using FABIO 2CX supports multiple digital axle counter inputs (Upine / DN line) including UFSBI with auto change over mechanism between E1(STM) ~ Quad, it also has direct optical interface which can be another additional path of protection.
The above connectivity diagram uses optical medium which is primary path 1: consisting of (P) & (S), Path2 is the secondary path of E1(STM) and third path is the quad (Path 3), ensuring unmatched reliability for communication medium to connect digital axle counters which are very important equipment. Path 4 is Quad if HASSDAC (User can further improve on the above as per requirement)
FABIO 2CX
Team Engineer is a 30- year-old Indian company which designs, manufactures communication equipment (specializes in converting legacy interfaces to optical / E1(STM)) has its own in-house R&D, and has been contributing to Railway’s communication needs for their various applications, next in line is Software Defined Network elements connecting Data loggers, SCADA RTU, FOIS / PRS / UTS, Voice Communication etc., through GSM
This article is a part of our June 2019 Magazine.
