Protocol Hub
Dynamic, multiple protocol conversion application for railway telemetry
HASCOM was commissioned by Ansaldo STS to come up with a solution to help them to transition from one Train Control system to another. The problem was that the existing system used several different serial protocols in the railway telemetry, the new system used another serial protocol again. It was obviously not feasible to change the Train Control system and all field sites over at the same instant in time, and also, running 2 Train Control systems in parallel as field sites swapped from one to the other was not ideal either.
To provide a solution the Protocol Hub PC application was conceived. This application was envisaged to be inserted in the communications path from the Train Control to the field sites. Initially it would be transparent to both the Train Control and the field sites, but as required could switch individual field sites over to the new Train Control protocol.
As it was developed, Protocol Hub turned in to something much more.
- It could do protocol conversion between a whole range of protocols commonly found in railway telemetry
- It could be used in the field to convert a single protocol path, or in the main control room to convert all protocol paths
- It has a very powerful data display and logging ability for fault finding
- It has the ability to locally take control of any communications path
- It's reliability is as near to 100% as possible, as any downtime could bring the whole rail network to a halt
Currently the interfaces/protocols supported include:
| Name | Protocol | Interface | Function |
| S2 Master | S2 | Synchronous serial port and TCP/IP & UDP/IP serial servers | Support communications to S2 field devices |
| S2 Slave proxy | S2 | Synchronous serial port | Support communications with an S2 master |
| Genisys Master | Genisys | Asynchronous serial port and TCP/IP & UDP/IP serial servers | Support communications to Genisys field devices |
| Genisys Slave proxy | Genisys | TCP/IP & UDP/IP serial servers | Support communications with a Genisys master |
| UCE Master | ElectroLogic Communication Protocol (UCE) | Asynchronous serial port and TCP/IP & UDP/IP serial servers | Support communications to a UCE field device |
| ModBus Master | ModBus RTU | TCP/IP & UDP/IP serial servers | Support communications to a ModBus RTU field device |
| Local Station | n/a | n/a | Allow remote control of some application functionality |
| Local Control | n/a | n/a | Allow monitoring & setting of controls and/or indications via the software user interface |
Due to the structure of the application, other protocols can easily be added.
For pricing, availability and to talk to us about your requirements, please contact us.
