MULTITEL, an independent railway testing laboratory based in Mons, Belgium, is expanding its test capabilities to support the development, interoperability assessment and future accredited testing of EULYNX-compatible railway signalling systems.

Object Controller testing as the first laboratory scope

The first focus of the laboratory is Object Controller testing. MULTITEL already operates a dedicated EULYNX Object Controller Test Bench combining EULYNX communication interfaces, physical Digital I/O, Object Controller simulation, test-sequence preparation, automated execution, monitoring and result analysis.

The environment provides a controlled and reproducible framework for development support, interface validation, interoperability testing, pre-conformity testing, regression testing and independent conformity assessment.

MULTITEL already has the technical capability, laboratory infrastructure and test tools required to perform a complete conformity test campaign for a Point-related implementation. A Point testing solution developed in cooperation with PILZ has been integrated into the laboratory environment, demonstrating the combination of EULYNX SCI communication, real Digital I/O, physical equipment interaction and traceable test execution.

MULTITEL intends to extend its existing ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory activities to include EULYNX Object Controller testing within the relevant accredited scope.

Beyond individual Object Controllers

MULTITEL has also developed its own EULYNX-compatible Interlocking Simulator, capable of communicating according to EULYNX interfaces and interacting simultaneously with a large number of virtualised Object Controllers.

This capability makes it possible to reproduce representative signalling configurations within a fully controlled and repeatable environment and provides a foundation for:

• multi-Object Controller scenarios and large virtual signalling configurations;
• Interlocking-to-Object Controller interoperability testing;
• nominal, degraded and fault-injection scenarios;
• automated regression campaigns;
• future system-level EULYNX testing.

Towards a Full Trackside Digital Twin

The same EULYNX interaction capabilities are being incorporated into MULTITEL’s existing Trackside / RBC Test Bench. By combining RBC simulation and testing, EULYNX-compatible Interlocking simulation, virtualised and real Object Controllers, and virtualised or real field elements, MULTITEL is progressively developing the capability to reproduce a complete railway Trackside environment.

The long-term objective is to establish a Full Trackside Digital Twin: a controlled and instrumented environment in which railway signalling architectures can be exercised from the RBC level down to the Interlocking, Object Controller and field-element level.

Same virtual Trackside. Same scenarios. Comparable results.

Building a reference environment for Interlocking testing

One of the objectives of the MULTITEL EULYNX laboratory is to establish a reproducible reference test environment for EULYNX-compatible Interlockings.

MULTITEL’s own EULYNX Interlocking implementation can interact with a predefined set of virtualised Object Controllers and execute controlled signalling scenarios. An external Interlocking Under Test could then be connected to the same virtual Trackside and exposed to the same scenarios.

The resulting behaviour can be compared under identical conditions in order to identify behavioural differences, interface deviations, protocol inconsistencies, timing differences, unexpected state transitions and interoperability issues.

The objective is not to define the MULTITEL implementation as the EULYNX reference, but to provide an independent and reproducible benchmark environment enabling objective comparison between implementations.

A collaborative reference test base

MULTITEL intends to build a structured reference test base for EULYNX systems, starting from Object Controller testing and building upon the Object Controller test cases made available by EULYNX.

The ambition is to progressively extend the test scenarios towards Object Controller behaviour, Interlocking-to-Object Controller interactions, multi-Object Controller configurations, nominal and degraded operating modes, interoperability scenarios and ultimately complete Trackside configurations.

Open to collaboration

MULTITEL is looking for manufacturers, infrastructure managers, laboratories, technology providers and other EULYNX stakeholders interested in contributing to this initiative.

The laboratory is ready to integrate additional Object Controllers, field components and signalling subsystems. For new components, MULTITEL can jointly develop the required laboratory interfaces, simulation models and test environment, following the same collaborative principles already applied with PILZ.

" Our ambition is to progressively build an independent and reproducible EULYNX test environment. We want to start from Object Controllers, extend the approach to Interlockings, and ultimately reproduce a complete Trackside architecture. We are open to collaboration with partners willing to contribute equipment, expertise and test scenarios to this common objective."

Xavier Ricco
Head of Railway & Autonomous Transport Systems, MULTITEL​

About us

MULTITEL is an independent research and innovation centre based in Mons, Belgium. Its Railway Department develops and operates advanced test, simulation and validation platforms for railway signalling and automation systems, with laboratory activities structured according to ISO/IEC 17025 requirements.

Media / technical contact

MULTITEL Railway Department

ertms@multitel.be