Design and Development of Commuter Services Model in Trains using Cloud

INTRODUCTION

With rapid evolution of computer networks, information technology is seeping into every part of our life and everything is getting digitalised. In future, cloud computing will play an important role in how digital networks work and how it is used to solve almost every problem easily. Now a days, cloud computing is expanding in all the areas like education, business, security, traffic control etc. The main objective of this study is to explore how cloud can affect the normal transportation systems, especially railways. The outcome of this study is to provide some solutions for rail transportation system which helps it to make the work easier by providing digital networks in a train.

OVERVIEW OF CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud computing: The name cloud is inspired from symbol that is used to represent internet in network flow diagrams and charts (Wang and Xing, 2011), which refers to the distributed systems and it is available wherever one goes. Cloud is defined as pool of resources with very high processing, memory and networking capabilities. According to IBM, cloud computing is a model which provides on demand web based software, middleware and computing resources (Alabbadi, 2011). It is an internet based paradigm where internet is served as datacentre and computing centre for clients.

The cloud is based on business models like SAAS, PAAS, IAAS, etc. (Silas et al., 2012). Software as a service (SAAS) provides software service on demand where client does not have to install software; but can access it over internet. Hotmail, yahoo mail, gmail are simple examples of this service. Infrastructure as a service (IAAS) provides the needed hardware resources like memory, processing power, networking, etc., which relieves the users of buying and maintaining the hardware resources (Ding et al., 2012). Platform as a service (PAAS) provides a single platform with tools for developers to work over internet (Zhou et al., 2010). Examples include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), google app engine, force.com, etc. With this technology growth, cloud computing increases the capabilities of client terminals virtually. And eventually I/O devices can perform seamlessly without inbuilt capabilities. Cloud can be accessed by any low capability device like mobile, iPad, table PC, etc.

Cloud computing is a combination of the following existing IT technologies:

The advantages of cloud computing:

CURRENT STATUS OF RAILWAYS

The train journeys are uncomfortable, long, boring and complicated. For passenger verification, the Train Ticked Examiner (TTE) gets long sheets of paper when train reaches station. It is complicated to maintain those sheets and give them to TTEs coach wise. For passenger verification to go through the names of passengers is difficult again. Whenever passenger couldn’t arrive, filtering the details of the available seats for replacing with new passenger is difficult. When a ticket is in waiting list and the passenger needs to search for TTE to know about the seat availability. If the seats are not available in the present coach and as the TTE doesn’t know the details of other coaches, TTE can’t go into another coach to see availability as it would be difficult for him. For getting food items also, commuters need to go all the way through the coaches to pantry car or else if lazy, they starve at same place. Getting information about the places travelling through and the information about how late the train is to arrive at a station is impossible and commuters don’t even know what’s happening (Petcu et al., 2012). A long train journey without entertainment and especially without internet is hard to get over with. When there is a robbery or a need to call the police to solve the problem, one cannot go all the way through bogies to search for police. Now a days it has become common to see the trains slamming into each other, it’s because the driver does not have any information about the other train timings, location and their speed with which they are arriving on a single track. While travelling, people are unaware of delay by which train is running and also the reasons of delay, one always wants to know the timings to catch the train at the next station. All these problems could be overcome with some solutions using cloud services to provide all the above mentioned facilities.

THE APPLICATION OF CLOUD COMPUTING FOR TRAINS

Cloud installation and positioning: The local server (cloud) is installed in a separate bogie and access points are placed in each compartment according to the requirements and these access points are connected to server to form a LAN. As shown in Fig. 1, the cloud could possibly have following components processors, GPS, SMS server, memory and internet.

Fig. 1:	Components of cloud for trains

Fig. 2:	Cloud model in a train

Following are the details of components:

The clients (TTE, passenger, caterer, etc.) can access the cloud and use the services with a handheld device with Wi-Fi connection. The services can be accessed through a browser since web applications are platform independent and can work on any browser.

Figure 2 shows the simple model of the cloud in a train. A central compartment consists of the server and the hardware needed for cloud, each compartment consists of an access point, these access points are connected to the cloud through Local Area Network (LAN) and a client can access the cloud using wireless handheld devices.

Cloud services: Figure 3 represents the services provided by the cloud and following definitions give detailed view of services (Pareit et al., 2012):

Fig. 3:	Services provided by cloud implemented for train

Cloud application method: After installing the cloud and network, whenever reaches a station it downloads the details of passengers entering into the train automatically and these details are shown to the TTE and passenger. In general, discontinuous internet access shall hinder the services. With a cloud, when a user requests data from web, the data is downloaded into the cloud on the go and when it is ready it is given to the client (Bourguiba et al., 2011). If one wants to upload anything to the internet, because of discontinuity, the cloud shall take care of uploading even after getting down from the train. The cloud will have process running and can automatically update content whenever the internet is available.

Fig. 4:	Cloud access by clients

For the information about the places, Cloud gets position from GPS and searches on the web for information and provides it to user. If there is no internet connectivity limited information can be known from local database.

Cloud leverages the characteristics of autonomic computing to calculate the possibility of train clash by getting the dynamic information of trains timings, speed and position, running on a single line through internet and can alert the concerned authority. If there is no internet in some places it will calculate from recent updates or from static local database having the schedules of other trains. Cloud can also automate the traffic management process.

When there is an emergency and if the police are not available it is impossible to find them. But using cloud one can contact them using cloud services which shall be fast and easy.

Figure 4 depicts the cloud access by clients. Every user has different privileges to access cloud. TTE can use it to verify seats, check availability, re-allotment, etc. User have privileges only to check availability and for other entertainment services. Administrator has privileges for cloud monitoring and maintenance. The Caterer has privileges over maintenance of catering database. Cloud can be used by police for security monitoring.

FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS

In future, when cloud computing completely takes the position there could be lot of applications that could run on any platform. The passenger can demand services required for the train journey from day of booking to the day of journey any time. The services needed are downloaded from web whenever the internet is available and will be ready for the passenger on the day of journey.