EBICAB is a trade mark registered by Bombardier for the equipment on board a train used as a part of a Automatic Train Control

Automatic Train Control

Automatic Train Control is a train protection system for railways, ensuring the safe and smooth operation of trains on ATC-enabled lines. Its main advantages include making possible the use of cab signalling instead of track-side signals and the use of smooth deceleration patterns in lieu of the...

 system. EBICAB was originally derived from Ericsson's SLR system in Sweden. Most trains in Sweden an Norway uses a similar on-board system, Ansaldo L10000 (more known as ATC-2) from Bombardiers competitor Ansaldo. ATC-2 was also developed in Sweden .

These on-board systems uses pairs of balise

Balise

A balise is an electronic beacon or transponder placed between the rails of a railway as part of an Automatic Train Protection system. The French word "balise" is used to distinguish these beacons from other kinds of beacon....

s mounted on the sleepers.
The pairs of balises distinguish signals in one direction from the other direction with semicontinuous speed supervision, using a wayside to train punctual transmission using wayside transponders.

Versions

EBICAB comes in two versions, EBICAB 700 in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 and Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 and EBICAB 900 installed in the Mediterranean Corridor (v_max= 220 km/h). The EBICAB 900 is also used in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 under the name ATP-VR/RHK. In Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 it is known as Convel (the contraction of Controlo de Velocidade, meaning Speed Control).

The EBICAB 900 system uses wayside transponders (also called balises) with signal encoders or series communications with electronic lookup table, and on-board equipment on the train. The transmission of data occurs between the passive wayside transponders (between 2 to 4 per signal) and the antenna installed under the train, which powers the transponders when it passes over the transponder. The coupling between the transponder and the on-board antenna is inductive.

In comparison with ASFA

ASFA

ASFA may refer to:*Arts & Science Federation of Associations*Alabama School of Fine Arts*American Samoa Football Association*American Sighthound Field Association*American Society for Apheresis...

, a system which transmits only a maximum amount of data per frequency, EBICAB uses electronic lookup table , the amount of data transmitted is much larger.

Adif

Adif

Adif, an acronym of Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias, is a Spanish state-owned company under the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, charged with the management of most of Spain's railway infrastructure, that is the track, signalling and stations...

/Renfe, in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, sometimes use the term ATP

Automatic Train Protection

Automatic Train Protection in Great Britain refers to either of two implementations of a train protection system installed in some trains in order to help prevent collisions through a driver's failure to observe a signal or speed restriction...

to refer to EBICAB 900, which is the first system on its network to provide Automatic Train Protection.

Main Characteristics

• Transponders operating in the ISM band at 27 MHz amplitude modulated for the clock pulses and impulse frequency of 50 kHz.
• Transmission of data to trains at 4,5 MHz at 50 kbit/s with 32 bit packets encoding 12 bits of information (EBICAB 700) or 255 bit packets encoding 180 bits of information (EBICAB 900), including the necessary synchronisation bits.
• The signals are linked (concatenated), but the signs, for example, for warnings and speed, are not necessarily linked (concatenated); it is acceptable to have 50% of the transponders linked to be safe against failures.
• The driver may input characteristics such as train identification, length, speed type, maximum speed, braking characteristics, and train pressure.
• The driver receives visual indications such as speed limit, target speed, overspeed, ASFA Alarm, braking reset, Permission to Pass, alarm signals, braking warning, red or alphanumeric indications.

Supervision

• Line velocity, as a function of line capacity and the vehicle's performance capabilities in situations of overspeed or the imposition of lower velocity for some types of trains.
• Multiple objectives, including signaling information without wayside signals.
• The system can enforce permanent, temporary and emergency speed restrictions by using unlinked (concatenated) transponders.
• Stop Point.
• Dynamic braking profile.
• Status of the level crossing and landslide detectors.
• Maneuvers.
• Protection against wheel wear.
• Slip/Slide compensation.
• Authorization to pass a signal at Stop.

Warnings

• Acoustic warning at excess of 3 km/h and service braking at excess of 5 km/h.

• The operator may release service braking when the speed is below one of the speed limits.

EBICAB 700

The most important difference with EBICAB 900, is that EBICAB 700 can only transmit packets with 12 useful bits for a total of 32bits and allows up to 5 transponders per signal.

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