Colloquia

Summary

This master's thesis investigates the development of a future-proof, capability-enhancing system architecture for legacy railway signalling systems in Dutch railway yards, conducted at ProRail BV. The design research uses a systems engineering approach, including reverse architecting of existing legacy systems and applying the US Department of Defence Architecture Framework (DoDAF) to describe the newly designed architecture, referred to as the Bridging Architecture. This Bridging Architecture incorporates standardisation, modular design, and specifications of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), presented on a Bridging A3 Architecture Overview (A3AO). The Bridging A3AO supports system architecture communication and effective comparison to the existing Legacy Architecture, presented on a separate A3AO. Ultimately, this research can support decision-makers and engineers in developing the resulting Bridging Systems. The study demonstrates that implementing Bridging Systems can increase system life cycle performance when replacing Legacy Systems during large maintenance activities. Bridging Systems include the flexibility of incorporating ERTMS train protection hardware to increase the deployment speed of international interoperability on the Dutch infrastructure.