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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kuperberg, Michael, Kindler, Daniel, Jeschke, Sabina
Format: Preprint
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.06236
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author Kuperberg, Michael
Kindler, Daniel
Jeschke, Sabina
author_facet Kuperberg, Michael
Kindler, Daniel
Jeschke, Sabina
contents Conventional railway operations employ specialized software and hardware to ensure safe and secure train operations. Track occupation and signaling are governed by central control offices, while trains (and their drivers) receive instructions. To make this setup more dynamic, the train operations can be decentralized by enabling the trains to find routes and make decisions which are safeguarded and protocolled in an auditable manner. In this paper, we present the findings of a first-of-its-kind blockchain-based prototype implementation for railway control, based on decentralization but also ensuring that the overall system state remains conflict-free and safe. We also show how a blockchain-based approach simplifies usage billing and enables a train-to-train/machine-to-machine economy. Finally, first ideas addressing the use of blockchain as a life-cycle approach for condition based monitoring and predictive maintenance in train operations are outlined.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_1901_06236
institution arXiv
publishDate 2019
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Are Smart Contracts and Blockchains Suitable for Decentralized Railway Control?
Kuperberg, Michael
Kindler, Daniel
Jeschke, Sabina
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Networking and Internet Architecture
Systems and Control
68M14
Conventional railway operations employ specialized software and hardware to ensure safe and secure train operations. Track occupation and signaling are governed by central control offices, while trains (and their drivers) receive instructions. To make this setup more dynamic, the train operations can be decentralized by enabling the trains to find routes and make decisions which are safeguarded and protocolled in an auditable manner. In this paper, we present the findings of a first-of-its-kind blockchain-based prototype implementation for railway control, based on decentralization but also ensuring that the overall system state remains conflict-free and safe. We also show how a blockchain-based approach simplifies usage billing and enables a train-to-train/machine-to-machine economy. Finally, first ideas addressing the use of blockchain as a life-cycle approach for condition based monitoring and predictive maintenance in train operations are outlined.
title Are Smart Contracts and Blockchains Suitable for Decentralized Railway Control?
topic Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Networking and Internet Architecture
Systems and Control
68M14
url https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.06236