
Photo: Ab Donker
MST’s CATE system has been installed as part of a project with Focus Sensors and Prorail in Culemborg (Netherlands), as part of a joint innovation project to use Focus Sensors fibre optic sensing technology to monitor railway suppport and track movements in the area. One of the key challenges for Focus Sensors in this project was continuously collecting the data and transmitting it from a field location with limited access to cloud using a 4G modem.
The onsite CATE deployment consists of a single low power unit that continuously compresses the data stream from the DAS interrogator. The onsite data buffer stores over 1 month of recorded data, allowing users to go back in time and re-examine events that would have otherwise been deleted due to storage considerations. Offsite users can request sections of data to be uploaded to cloud servers for permanent storage and analysis via the CATE API or web portal.
To date, signals from more than 1000 trains have been uploaded and analysed using the system. This analysis in turn provides important information for railway operators regarding issues such as track stability and water saturation in the area. You can read more about how Focus Sensors are using the data on their site here.