An architecture for efficient distribution of railway asset performance metrics

Condition based monitoring is becoming an increasingly utilised method for monitoring track and rolling stock assets in the rail industry. There is a growing need to monitor such systems remotely and receive relevant and timely condition updates. This paper assumes a system in which there are several deployments of monitoring equipment in different locations, potentially large distances apart. To facilitate timely data access, a need for a system to transmit, store, process and present this data in a quick and efficient way is apparent. After establishing some deficiencies in existing designs, a system is proposed in which all processing and storage is completed in a distributed, cloud based system, and communication with the system is achieved with lightweight, widely used protocols. Through deployment of a sample system, this study determines that the proposed architecture can be successfully implemented and can add value to current and future condition based monitoring devices on railway networks.