Railway & signalling
Authentication, validation and
assessment of software-based railway systems
Companies that develop or operate railway-engineering systems are bound by relevant standards. In future the national and/or generic standards hitherto relevant in the railway sector will increasingly be replaced by the new CENELEC standards EN 50xxx, applicable Europe-wide. In addition to the changes this brings with regard to the development, inspection and approval processes, there is an ever increasing software dominance in new systems, which makes it necessary to adjust or extend the established procedures. This is where SQS supports manufacturers and operators in meeting the changed requirements.
There has been an effort for several years in the area of
railway applications to introduce European standardisation
for norms. Behind this tendency is firstly the desire to simplify
cross-border rail transport (interoperability) and secondly
to introduce so-called "cross-acceptance", that
is, a simplified procedure for reciprocal acknowledgement
of railway systems which have already been approved in another
country according to European standards. The CENELEC standards
EN 50xxx, particularly the so-called RAMS standard EN 50126,
the software standard EN 50128 and the system standard prEN
50129 are the result of these harmonisation efforts. more 