Ultra-Wide Bandwidth Systems for the Surveillance of Railway Crossing Areas

Level crossings are critical elements of railway networks where a large number of accidents take place every year. With the recent enforcement of new and higher safety standards for railway transportation systems, dedicated and reliable technologies for level crossing surveillance must be introduced in order to comply with the safety requirements. In this survey the worldwide problem of level crossing surveillance is addressed, with particular attention to the recent European safety regulations. In this context, the capability of detecting, localizing, and discriminating the vehicle/obstacle that might be entrapped in a level crossing area is considered of paramount importance to save lives, and at the same time avoid costly false alarms. In this article the main solutions available today are illustrated and their pros and cons discussed. In particular, the recent ultra-wide bandwidth technology, combined with proper signal processing and backhauling over the already deployed optical fiber backbone, is shown to represent a promising solution for safety improvement in level crossings.