A domain specific language for railway control systems

Author: Anne E. Haxthausen and Jan Peleska

Abstract:
In this paper we present a domain specific language for railway and tramway control systems. In this language network topology, interlocking tables etc. can be described. Adopting terms and concepts from the application domain, this language is well suited for communication between users, system engineers and control computer specialists. The semantics of the language is given in the following way. There is a re-usable framework of generic state machines describing a generic architecture of the considered class of control systems. Descriptions in the domain-specific language are transformed into configuration data. The semantics is then the generic framework instantiated by this configuration data. This approach allows to develop a safety proof using quantification over all admissible sets of configuration data. Such a proof represents a generic theory and would not have to be re-done as long as the configuration data remains admissible. From the formal semantics an executable software system can easily be derived. It is indicated how the integrated hardware/software system can be tested automatically, based on the domain specific description.

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