Model-based analysis of a protocol for reliable communication in railway worksites

In this paper we perform a model-based analysis of the Timed Reliable Communication (TRC) protocol, which is being used within the EU funded ALARP project for railway worksite communication. TRC is a group communication protocol based on IEEE 802.11 networks, targeting safety-critical applications with limited bandwidth requirements. The paper contains an in-depth analysis of the performance and reliability characteristics of the protocol using a Stochastic Activity Networks model. The results are first compared with available experimental measurements for the sake of model validation. The validated model is then used for a thorough analysis of a set of key metrics under different environment and network conditions. The obtained results allow: i) to assess that the protocol allows to satisfy the ALARP targeted performance and reliability requirements, and ii) to evaluate the existing tradeoffs and help in choosing parameter values for the final implementation.