Modem aids tunnel monitoring
A
Westermo Data Communications product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Oct 8, 2007
The Gotthard Tunnel contains 68 stations, each with two LD-64 modems, one for the normal bus, and one for the emergency bus used for alarm signal transmission in case of an optical link failure.
The Gotthard Tunnel in the Swiss Alps is one of the narrowest bottlenecks on the transit road between Northern and Southern Europe and one of the longest tunnels in the world, at 17km.
In order to ensure higher security for traffic flow, Weiss-Electronic has implemented a road control installation that allocates vehicles to the appropriate lanes of the tunnel's gateway.
This gateway can be closed when the passage of the tunnel is impossible due to an accident.
The systematic metering of vehicles allows only a safe number of vehicles in the tunnel at the same time.
Also, by means of a "drop control" the trucks can be spaced so that bunching is avoided in the tunnel, to prevent the spreading of a fire.
The necessary signal switching will be started automatically if there is a fire, if the allowed CO-concentration is exceeded or if stopped vehicles are detected.
The entire data management network is based on redundancy rings.
It can still be controlled in the event of a defective cable or device failure.
All data coming from the lights or speed display panels is then transmitted to the control system through Westermo's LD-64, RS-485 fibre optic modem.
There are 68 stations and each has two LD-64 modems, one for the normal bus, and one for the emergency bus used for alarm signal transmission in case of an optical link failure.
Each of those stations has four signalling lights and one speed limit or emergency display.
Joerg Gelz, Project Manager at Weiss-Electronic said "The technical difficulty of such a project is the length of the tunnel".
"It is 17km long, and has just one tube for both directions".
"To conform to the security requirement, we have to adjust the traffic so that there are no more than 150 lorries per direction per hour, and not more than 1000 car units per direction per hour".
"In case of fire detection, the tunnel has to be closed in less than ten seconds".
"This means that each light and each display panel has to display the right emergency message at the right place".
"In that context, we have chosen Westermo's product because of its strong harsh environment compliance and reliability, and of course because of the price".
Switches in road infrastructure have to resist vibration, moistness and high levels of corrosion.
The LD-64 is mostly used in applications where high reliability is required as this unit can still function if a fibre or a fibre pair is broken.
In the event of line failure the LD-64 is equipped with alarm outputs which can be connected to a local I/O device (a PLC) to provide a network alarm.
The LD-64 handles transmission rates up to 375kbit/s.
It is available in both multi and single-mode fibre.
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