Zigbee is the right sort of network on the rails

Zigbee wireless node networking is used as low cost data gathering hardware on railhead treatment trains that remove leaf residue from UK's railway tracks.

MPS has successfully applied Zigbee wireless node networking onboard railhead track treatment trains.

The wireless network was used as low cost data gathering hardware in recent trials on a fleet of railhead treatment trains that are used during the autumn season to remove leaf residue from UK's railway tracks.

Data regarding treatments being applied to the track railhead are compressed into SMS messages and sent via the GSM network to a server computer where the treatments can be mapped out against the national railway map.

The application of the Zigbee technology has seen to provide many benefits such as low installation costs, flexibility (especially in terms of upgrades and additions), easier service support through the ability to access the system and the data being collected wirelessly and high security and reliability of the network.

MPS is using the knowledge gained from this exercise in its development of other industrial applications.

The rail system has been accepted within the rail industry and the process is being upgraded to use GPRS for the data downloads in order to benefit from the dramatic reduction in data transfer costs incurred using SMS messages.

MPS is seeking other trial applications and business partners who want to develop and enhance their business services through the application of Zigbee, GPS, and GPRS technologies.

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