New Trends of ZONA IS in Environment of Slovak Railways

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New Trends of ZONA IS in Environment of Slovak
Railways

• prof. Ing. Karel, CSc., Univerzita Pardubice,
  FEI, KST
• doc. Ing. Emil Kršák, PhD., Žilinská univerzita,
  FRI
• RNDr. Hynek Bachratý, PhD.,Žilinská univerzita,
  FRI
• Ing. Viliam Tavac, PhD., Žilinská univerzita, FRI

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Basis for changes

• IS ZONA is the basic tool for creation of railwey
  timetable (GVD) in Slovakia and the Slovak
  Railways (ŽSR) since the year 2000
• Up to now the system works, also as a network
  aplication, without any major problems
• Because the system architecture, its data base
  and user interface are based on the state
  developed more then 10 years ago, it calls for
  upgrade to corresponding modern and up-to-date
  level

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The main reasons of system innovation

• Limits in current system
• The need for ongoing hardware and software
  maintenance requires a modification of outdated
  solutions that were appropriate and the only
  possible at time of the system origination
• The current system maintaining is becoming more
  complicated and difficult
• In some areas it approaches the limit of
  technical and moral life
• Integration platform
• Fluent transfer of final and valid train
  timetable data to other IS
• Process of transfer must by fully automated
  performed on modern and sufficiently widespread
  and universal platform
• Accordance with the agreed concept of appropriate
  IT architecture which communicates with the
  external environment via module GRADAS (Train
  Timetable Database Server)

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The main reasons of system innovation

• Legislation and regulations
• The need for upgrading the existing ZONA IS with
  respect to major changes in legislation (SR, EU),
  which will require to extend the system with new
  functionalities
• These includes closer links to the railway
  operation, shorter period of planning cycles (up
  to an on-line preparation of the train routes)
• We can assume a need to enable external access to
  certain algorithms such as calculating of travel
  times
• There may be additional candidates of ZONA IS
  users which extends the range of users

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The main reasons of system innovation

• Main functionality demands
• Elimination of partial isolation of IS ZONA as
  the tool for strategic planning and its full
  integration with the systems for operational
  planning of railway transport and traffic
• Maintain comfort work for train-path-dealer in
  modern environment of MET (Manager Route Editor)
• Creation of an optimal environment for adding new
  functionality for the following period, support
  of the efficient train-path sales, binding to the
  operational planning of rail transport
• Specification of users and operators requirements

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The main reasons of system innovation

• Persisting of data
• Relational database Oracle RDBMS
• Environment with the benefits arising from the
  simplification of archiving and better security
  and data protection
• Operation simplification to eliminate the need of
  LINUX platform.
• Architecture
• Distributed architecture
• New mechanism of check-in/check-out principles
• Some parts of system can work off-line
• Design
• Specification of the designer needs
• Migration to a modern .NET platforms
• The possibility of further system development and
  system functionality adding using the latest
  development environment

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Pilot project of ZONA and MET modules on the new
platform

• Implementation and deployment of a functional
  prototype to verify the accuracy of the proposed
  architecture, functionality of the system, export
  data to RDBMS, functionality of internal and
  external communication interfaces
• Training of key users
• The pilot operation with the support of designer
• Removing operating faults and claims identified
  during the pilot operation
• Deployment of the ZONA and MET modules into
  operation

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Design of the operation of ZONA, MET and EXPERT
modules
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MET (Manager Train-Path Editor)
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MET (Manager Train-Path Editor)

• Manager Train-Path Editor (MET) is used for
  train-path creating and editing using modern sw
  technology, as a module ZONA IS
• MET communicates with ZONA IS bi-directionally
• Communication takes place through the MET and
  ZONA server and is secured by encryption
• The application is ready for mobile users, too,
  who can work abroad at meetings and after
  creation of the VPN tunnel to MET and ZONA server
  they can update and send their data over the
  Internet to ZONA IS and other applications

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MET creation of train route
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MET creation of train route

• Entering the trains can be done in tabular form
  or graphically on the map
• The application is able to display the graphical
  timetable sheet
• Creating of a graphical timetable sheet is
  allowed to all users of the MET and via
  synchronization is transferred to other MET users

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MET graphical train timetable
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MET train calendar
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The list of MET features

• Displaying of trains in tabular form in basic and
  extended list
• Displaying of train and its route in detailed
  form with all the editable parameters
• Displaying of trains on the map with the
  possibility of route editing
• Displaying of trains on graphical timetable sheet
  
• Filtered displaying of trains
• Creating and deleting a train
• Editing of train

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GRADAS (Train Timetable Database Server)

• GRADAS tool (module) allows train timetable data
  access and publishing which are produced as ZONE
  IS output
• The main goal is publishing of the valid train
  timetable to be utilized by other related
  information systems
• It allows to provide data on working, study,
  lock-out and other train timetables
• The system can be made available for the needs of
  other users, too, especially other users or the
  general public (passengers)

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Basic description of the data structure

• Data on trains (common and standard data on
  trains, train route)
• Data on calendars and services
• Data on infrastructure (locomotives, transport
  points, route segments, track units)
• Classifiers (fixed or completed by users, used in
  other structures)

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GRADAS preparing data for publishing
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Thank you for your attention