Design of ATP functions and communication interface specifications for Korean Radio-based Train Control System

Communication based Train Control(CBTC) system, the latest train control technology, has been widely applied throughout the world, because it has a number of advantages such as improved driving headway, reduction of the maintenance cost and so on. The technical core of CBTC is to ensure the safe space between trains through the real-time train tracking. Korean Radio-based Train Control System(KRTCS) has been developed as a Korean CBTC standard since 2010. KRTCS is comprised of Automatic Train Supervision(ATS), wayside/onboard Automatic Train Protection(ATP), onboard Automatic Train Operation(ATO), Electronic Interlocking(EI) and wayside equipment such as transponder tags, precision stop maker, communication network, etc. In the paper, we present system configuration of KRTCS and design and development scheme of Automatic Train Protection(ATP) communication interface for KRTCS. Communication between each component is performed using the protocol defined in the form of variable messages. Messages are divided into periodic or non-periodic messages. This study describes onboard and wayside ATP functional design and communication message and procedure for each function.