Rail Internet of Things: An Architectural Platform and Assured Requirements Model

Abstract

Given the plethora of individual preferences and requirements of public transport passengers for travel, seating, catering, etc., it becomes very challenging to tailor generic services to individuals’ requirements using the existing service platforms. As tens of thousands of sensors have been already deployed along roadsides and rail tracks, and on buses and trains in many countries, it is expected that the introduction of IP networking will revolutionise the functionality of public transport in general and rail services in particular. In this paper, we propose a new communication paradigm to improve rail services and address the requirement of rail service users: the Rail Internet of Things (RIoT). To the best of our knowledge, it is the first work to define the RIoT and design an architectural platform that includes its components and the data communication channels. Moreover, we develop an assured requirements model using the situation calculus modelling to represent the fundamental requirements for adjustable, decentralised feedback control mechanisms necessary for the RIoT-ready software systems. The developed formal model is applied to demonstrate the design of passenger assistance software that interacts with the RIoT ecosystem and provides passengers with real-time information that is tailored to their requirements with runtime adaptability.