IEC 61375-2-3:2015

Overview

IEC 61375-2-3:2015 - Electronic railway equipment - Train communication network (TCN) - Part 2-3: TCN communication profile specifies the rules and profile for data exchange between consists in trains. Its purpose is to guarantee interoperability between consists by defining the architecture, addressing concepts, communication protocols and control services required for consistent on‑train communication. This edition incorporates the corrigenda of December 2015 and October 2016.

Key topics and technical requirements

The standard defines a comprehensive TCN communication profile focusing on practical interoperability building blocks:

• Architecture

  • Physical and logical train architectures, including defined train directions, views and consist/vehicle properties.
  • Support for closed trains and multiple ETBs (Ethernet Train Backbone) options.

• Addressing & Discovery

  • Common functional addressing concept and the TCN Domain Name System (TCN‑DNS).
  • TCN‑URI scheme and mapping to IP addresses for service resolution.

• Communication protocols

  • Common protocol for data exchange between functions, including the Train Real‑Time Data Protocol (TRDP) (Annex A) for process and message data.
  • Quality of Service (QoS) considerations and operational/OMTS network distinctions.

• Services for train communication control

  • ETB Control Service (ETBCTRL), CSTINFO telegrams for consist information exchange and notification, and Train Topology Database (TTDB) computation and structures.
  • Service discovery, Train Info Service and functions such as Leading, Confirmation/Correction and Sleep Mode (optional).

• Safety & reliability

  • Safe Data Transmission (SDTv2) (Annex B) with safety functional requirements and operational states for vital data exchange.
  • Mechanisms for exclusivity, topography checks and operational train directory computation.

Practical applications and who uses it

IEC 61375-2-3 is applied where interoperable on‑train communication is required across multi‑consist trains and distributed vehicle functions:

• Rolling stock manufacturers specifying on‑board networks and ETB implementations
• Railway system integrators and vehicle control suppliers implementing consistent addressing and service discovery
• Communication and signalling engineers designing TCN-based diagnostics, control, passenger information and distributed function exchange
• Test labs and certification bodies validating interoperability between consists and vendor equipment

Keywords: IEC 61375-2-3, TCN communication profile, Train communication network, TRDP, SDTv2, Train Topology Database, TCN‑DNS, ETB control, CSTINFO, interoperability.

Related standards & documents

• Other parts of the IEC 61375 series (TCN family)
• Annex A (TRDP) and Annex B (SDTv2) inside IEC 61375‑2‑3:2015 (normative) for protocol and safety transmission specifics.