WHHT: A Wireless Sensor Network for Heavy Haul Transportation

Abstract

Heavy haul transportation has emerged as the crucial means increasing the traffic of railway freight. Multilocomotive breaking is a necessity to heavy haul transportation. Wireless sensor network can promote the development of heavy haul transportation and increase the traffic volume while transporting safely and reliably. A novel wireless sensor network for heavy haul transportation (WHHT) is proposed to improve the traffic volume and reduce the maintenance and inspection requirements of heavy haul railway. WHHT is composed of train nodes on the locomotives and tails of train, relay nodes installed on the roof of carriages, detecting nodes placed along the track and some railway relay nodes. By the co-operation between these different communicators, the heavy haul train can be started and braked synchronously. Meanwhile, information of railway infrastructure can be detected and selected. Simulation results show that end-to-end time delay of WHHT is of the order of magnitude of millisecond.