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Overview
The
US Congress in 2008 mandated the deployment of Positive Train Control
(PTC) systems: advanced, wired- and wireless-networked communications
systems to prevent train-to-train collisions, enforce train speed
restrictions, and provide safety for road and railway workers.
PTC
has four primary components
-
Equipment
deployed on the locomotive/train
- Equipment
deployed trackside
- Network
access
points deployed at or near trackside that are connected to systems
operating at a remotely located control center
- A
bi-directional wireless data link that links all these elements. It
is this component upon which the Study Group shall focus.
Current
Status
The
IEEE 802.15 PTC Study Group has been meeting via a weekly telecon
since early October, while growing our membership and bringing in more
experts on rail transportation, radio technology, security and propagation. The participation currently includes over 90 people from around 50 different entities.
All presentations and documents are posted on IEEE Mentor. A Call for Applications was released. The Study Group has completed and gained IEEE 802.15 Working Group approval of the
Project Authorization Request (PAR) and Five Criteria (5C) documents.
The group remains on schedule to move to a full-fledged Task
Group by the May 2012 Interim in Atlanta, GA (USA).
How
to participate
Participate
by attending our telecons. Our telecons are on Wednesdays approximately
every week and are currently scheduled for 0800 Pacific / 0900 Mountain / 1000 Central / 1100 Eastern and 1500 UK / 1600 CET.
The draft agenda, conference number and access codes will be sent out
on the
reflector at least 24 hours before the meeting time. The next IEEE
802.15 Plenary is the week of 12-15 March at Waikoloa, HI (USA); until then, our
telecon dates will be 29 February and 7 March.
IEEE
802.15 PTC Study Group conducts their discussions on the
STDS-802-15-PTC Public Mailing List. You can learn how to subscribe to
the 802.15 PTC reflector by pointing your browser here.
Information
We
are in the
process of collecting submissions that provide a
good overview about the state-of-the-art in PTC efforts globally.
Document submittal is simple. If you choose to grow our library of
knowledge, please do so using the standard IEEE 802 template. Please note
that submission of copyrighted, confidential or proprietary material is
prohibited. Double check for "Confidential" or "Proprietary"
boilerplate before you push the "upload" button!
Background
A
presentation (IEEE 802.11-11/1032r1) was made
at both the IEEE 802.11 WNG and IEEE 802.15 WNG sessions at San
Francisco in July 2011, and the establishment of an Interest Group was
approved by the IEEE
802.15 WG during that
session.
The fit with IEEE 802.15 is excellent; the released standards
and in-process work that IEEE 802.15 has done to date have addressed in
part many of the requirements for a wireless link for PTC operating in
spectrum including, but not limited to, the 216-222 MHz band. At the Atlanta Plenary in November 2011,
promotion to a full Study Group was approved. This study group will
continue to review the work that has been done and propose a
path to development of a future standard for the wireless data link
element.
A liaison relationship has been established with the Rail Transportation Standards Committee of the IEEE
Vehicular Technology Society.
A presentation (15-12-0083-01-0ptc) was made in January 2012 to the
Wireless Communications
Committee (WCC) of the Association of American Railroads (AAR) to
inform that group of our work and to encourage participation. Another
informative presentation will be made at the upcoming PTC World
Congress event in Orlando, FL (USA), on the 1st of March. We
invite
participation from the broad rail
transportation communications industry.
Who to contact with questions
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc.
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