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12/5/2016

LILEE Systems Perspective: Coordinating development programs with various industry standards

By Paola Realpozo, director of rail strategy
 
Interoperable PTC technology involves complex design and implementation requirements. LILEE Systems coordinates development programs with various industry standards bodies to help railroads easily and effectively incorporate interoperable PTC technology. Since 2011, LILEE Systems has been providing PTC ITCM wayside and back office products, solutions and services to Class Is and commuter railroads. These solutions include Wayside Messaging Servers, PTC Systems Management Suite, Key Management System, Wayside Status Relay Service (WSRS), automated locomotive and wayside software provisioning, and ITCM network design, testing and deployment.
 
For instance, LILEE’s ZCC installation and auto configuration tool helps the railroad achieve cost savings by reducing the labor involved in the manual installation and provisioning of software in wayside and locomotive devices. The LILEE ZCC automatically installs the necessary configuration, operating system and other software onto Wayside Messaging Servers and Train Management Computers without the need for a maintainer to configure the unit with a separate computer. The LILEE ZCC is packaged with a comprehensive suite of systems management agents that provide back office visibility to Wayside Interface Units, Train Management Computer, PTC radios, onboard event recorders and other assets.

The software agents enable the real-time monitoring and maintenance of remote assets through the LILEE Systems Management Suite (SMS) in the back office. The LILEE SMS provides gateway functions for file transfer, kit management, interfaces to asset repositories and railroad inventory systems, and other functions. Management of these assets from the LILEE SMS reduces the time and expense associated with dispatching maintainers to the field and ensures that field devices can be configured and controlled in a standardized manner across the railroad.
 
LILEE Systems recently worked with a railroad to deliver an interoperable PTC key management solution that facilitates secure distribution of keys and certificates to the field where to be used by telecom, signal and mechanical technicians. As key management and systems management are closely coordinated within interoperable train control systems, LILEE worked with our customers to develop standardized interfaces to the Key Management Systems and the Systems Management Suite, enabling customer to leverage a solution that has been proven across several Class Is, and reduces the financial and timeline risk associated with deployment.