Westermo Data Communications industrial Ethernet switches are supporting a new Ethernet communication network for data collection on a section of the Ferrovie Nord Milano railway. Ferrovie Nord Milano is Italy’s second busiest railway company with 500 trains every day carrying more than 50 million passengers a year. The company is responsible for 300 kilometres of rail network incorporating 120 stations distributed on 5 lines in the hinterland north of Milan and in the provinces of Brescia, Como, Novara and Varese.
The Ferroive Nord control centre situated at Saronno receives inputs regarding train status, position, speed, crossing gates and points from many devices and systems that help ensure safety and a high quality service. Multiple control and measurement devices spanning the railway lines provide essential historical information, while many sensors and alarms monitor the current situation and send alerts in the event of any change in status.
Ferrovie Nord Milano is currently installing a series of industrial Ethernet networks to replace its existing analogue data collection systems. Previously, data collection was achieved using traditional analogue systems that incur high engineering costs and offer very low data flow. The new Ethernet networks aim to reduce these costs and will provide much higher levels of data throughput.
The first of the Ethernet networks is about 60 km and enables data collection at 32 stations servicing 25,000 passengers a day. Advanced PLCs gathering information from track sensors transmit the data via the Ethernet network over fibre optic cables (red lines) back to the Control Centre. In addition in/out digital signals for railway signalling are transmitted from the track to the SCADA centre.
The majority of the control and alarm systems are located remotely from the communications devices in the stations. Reliable connectivity between these devices is a key requirement. To ensure the reliable and continuous connection over the new Ethernet network, Ferrovie Nord Milano is using industrial Ethernet switches from Westermo Data Communications.
In total ten Westermo Data Communications Lynx 328 (railway approved) industrial Ethernet switches have been installed in a multi-drop redundant ring formation to provide a rugged Ethernet network offering data transmission speeds of 100Mbits. In case of any cable break the Lynx 328 switch uses a Fast Re-configuration of the Networks Topology (FRNT) concept to offer an ultra fast reconfiguration (30 ms) of the network.
The Lynx 328 switches incorporate a full metal housing, are IP40 rated, work in a temperature range of –40°C to 70°C, have no moving parts and have a redundant power input making them suitable for the toughest industrial environmental requirements such as this railway application.
The Westermo switches enable a major decrease in the data collection equipment required as well as significantly cutting the network and maintenance costs. Furthermore, because the Lynx switches are easy to use and install, Ferrovie Nord Milano Esercizo have been able to install and maintain the entire Ethernet network itself.
An initial 10 stations have already been connected to the first Ethernet network and two more networks are in the process of implementation, representing a project of a further 22 stations. Westermo switches are also to be used in these additional Ethernet networks.