CodeMesh In-Process Integration Technology Used for Swiss Railway Safety

Looking to create automated safety solution for a state-of-the-art rail system, Supercomputing Systems AG, a Zurich-based engineering company, has selected CodeMesh, a provider of solutions for integrating programming languages, for the railway safety application being used by Swiss Railway (SBB). With the CodeMesh JMS Courier, Supercomputing Systems AG can now create an automated safety system that monitors the traffic of cargo trains and reuse existing technology assets.

 

With the help of JMS Courier, any C++ or .NET (News - Alert) applications can use any Java Message Service (JMS) provider for its asynchronous enterprise communications needs. Usually, users get into their provider’s implementation for the life of the project. With CodeMesh, there is no need to rely on vendor specific interfaces. JMS Courier leverages CodeMesh’s in-process integration technology both at development and during runtime.

 

As Switzerland opened the Lötschberg-Basistunnel (LBT) in December 2007, an updated set of safety requirements were needed to monitor the cargo trains using the tunnel to accommodate speeds of up to 100 kilometers-per-hour for cargo trains on the new line through the Alps. To measure weight distribution, the SBB had a Delphi-based application. Weight distribution is the force that the axis brings down on the rail of a running train.

 

C++ has been used at SBB for other safety monitoring applications, and Supercomputing Systems had a special application for user terminals written for this purpose. Combining the disparate modules into one unified application, Supercomputing used CodeMesh JMS Courier to create a network interface. Merging these programs resulted in a solution that automates the process of monitoring rail traffic on a 24/7 basis. This approach also eliminated the necessity to write an entirely new application apart from meeting safety mandates.

 

Displaying data at three stations, the Supercomputing Systems application is currently operational on four production scales, also known as Radlastcheckpoints. Interface services will be created that translate the TCP based protocol into JMS. With CodeMesh’s in-process integration technology, there will be no need for the external processes or servers required by other forms of integration. CodeMesh’s interoperability solutions require much less communication overhead than conventional approaches to integration, apart from being fast and secure.