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Highlights
- Integrating OT and IT systems are fast becoming a priority for railway organizations the world over because of the myriad benefit it offers–from automation and streamlined workflows to improved safety and predictive maintenance.
- Industry players should focus on the development of management strategies of all critical functionalities and proactively put in place cybersecurity measures to fully realize the benefits of OT-IT convergence.
- Successful convergence requires careful planning, robust cybersecurity measures, and a clear digital resilience strategy. This will not only ensure seamless integration of the systems, but also mitigate potential risks.
OT-IT convergence in railways
The key objective of railway companies is to improve efficiency, in conformance with reliability, availability, maintainability, and safety (RAMS) principles.
To ride the next wave of growth, railway organizations are focusing on the integration and coordination of operational technolgies (OT) and information technology (IT) systems for efficient asset management. Railway operations are highly dependent on OT and networks for smooth functioning. IT systems, on the other hand, primarily transform business processes within railroad organizations. Their convergence enables seamless data exchange and communication between traditionally isolated IT and OT domains, resulting in operational excellence, optimized resource utilization, and enhanced decision-making.
The convergence of the OT with IT systems has, therefore, emerged as a transformative trend in the railway industry. A wide variety of operations can significantly benefit from this, enabling enterprises to enhance operational efficiency, minimize risk, and increase safety, aligned with the RAMS principles, all while reducing capital expenditure.
Convergence does not imply merely connecting OT and IT networks. It requires bringing together people, processes, and technology, and should be driven by organizational governance. Convergence of OT-IT systems is an evolutionary trend, and there is, therefore, no standard roadmap or industry-specific template available yet to start with. But to reap the potential benefits of convergence, OT data that supports real-time (or near real-time) decision-making has to be merged with IT data in a meaningful way and made accessible across wider stakeholders.
This means business objectives and security aspects can no longer be handled in silos, and the conventional triad of people, process, and technology must be integrated and aligned with the overall business goals and objectives of railroad enterprises (see Figure 1).
Framework for OT-IT convergence
The myriad benefits of this convergence
From automation and streamlined workflows to improved safety and predictive maintenance, OT-IT convergence offers multiple benefits to businesses.
In railway asset management, convergence enables real-time monitoring and control capabilities of assets such as rolling stock and infrastructure, including structures like bridges. This results in the following benefits to overall operations and maintenance of railway systems:
- Optimal asset management and predictive maintenance practices and strategies that enable scheduling of maintenance activities based on the actual condition of assets rather than at fixed time intervals.
- Immediate response to incidents such as track failures or signal malfunctions, leading to faster resolution and improved service reliability.
- Early detection of potential safety issues, thus allowing operators to take proactive measures, resulting in enhanced customer experience and enhanced staff productivity.
The levers for successful integration
Railway OT and IT systems are complex, and, hence, require a controlled and methodical approach for adding new interconnected functionalities to the existing environment.
We outline the key measures a railway enterprise must consider for an OT-IT convergence program:
- Set the foundation for convergence journey: In most cases, the flow of data between OT and IT systems is very limited or non-existent. An enterprise should discover and design the overlap of systems and security management between OT and IT. One approach could be segmentation and classification of railway OT assets depending upon their criticality. A sample categorization can be as follows:
- Operational safety critical systems such as signaling and European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS)
- Operational non-safety systems such as elevators, escalators, CCTV, HVAC
- Non-critical applications such as infotainment and other passenger services
- Get management buy-in: Unless the stakeholders are convinced about convergence goals and buy into the risk and rewards associated with progressive transformation, such initiatives will see little success. An enterprise should create a cross-functional team from OT and IT departments in railroad organizations, having executives with influence over both divisions (preferably a CxO) to steer it. Since infrastructure managers and train operating companies (TOC) are separate entities in most EU countries and the UK, this can add to the challenge.
- Manage convergence chaos: OT applications are seldom standardized, as they come from multiple vendors. Such heterogenous infrastructure poses three challenges–different lifecycle, incompatible interfaces, and complex integration. Creating a unified view of this fragmented system of systems is highly complex and risk prone. Common success measures need to be baselined by harmonizing processes followed by the OT and IT departments. An enterprise should create a trust-oriented data layer and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to enrich the data by reducing errors and generating context-oriented meta-data. If data acquired from OT systems is not consistent and lacks contextual information, quality issues will cause trust issues. One approach could be to create a data massaging layer between the data acquisition process and data visualization. A well thought through planning and execution cycle and by taking vendor, engineers, and data scientists into confidence to steer the convergence will be key to managing the chaos.
- Develop security enablers: The railway industry consists of extensive business premises that are widely accessible to the public with infrastructure that can span countries or continents. This makes railway infrastructure more prone to external attacks. Connected and intelligent railway technologies such as ERTMS and Communications-based train control (CBTC) introduce new cybersecurity risks. Also, safety and security differ within a system’s lifecycle from process and operational perspective. Given this uniqueness of the railway infrastructure, the security of safety paradigm should be followed to address the security requirements for OT-IT convergence. Although security in railways is a relatively new topic, processes for safety have been defined over years, and mature standards exist for their implementation. Enterprises should follow country or region-specific guidelines. For instance, in the European Union (EU), CENELEC specifications (CLC/TS 50701:2023) provide railway operators, system integrators, and product suppliers the guidance and specifications for cybersecurity. Investment in aggregator tools and technologies should be planned, as a traditional approach or a single system will not be able to thwart security breaches in a converged OT-IT environment.
OT and IT systems in railways and their cybersecurity enablers
- Create a pool of cross-trained workforce: Rail OT systems are specialized and require deep contextual knowledge to manage them. For convergence to be successful, the skills of personnel having expertise in OT and IT separately should be complemented by railway industry experts. An enterprise should create a pool of such resources at scale as this is key to the long-term sustenance of OT-IT convergence. Since OT roles require engineering know-how for deployment, maintenance, and operations with focus on reliability, enterprises should study the data generation and consumption cycle coupled with business processes. The project team should interact with respective subject matter experts and practitioners to create unified job description and relevant learning interventions specific to railway assets so that the workforce not only understands the OT and IT landscape in silos but also has a holistic view of convergence and is capable to cross-leverage skills to drive and sustain the OT-IT convergence momentum.
Future trends and outlook
OT and IT systems have traditionally been separate. However, their convergence is unavoidable today.
To achieve the vision of digital and connected railways by minimizing downtime and driving innovation, OT and IT have to align with business and operational objectives. This should be done strategically and not through ad hoc measures. The coming decade will accelerate convergence between OT and IT systems and the industry should prepare to meet the challenges. This should be done by bringing constructive collaboration in managing OT and IT networks, thereby achieving resilience in operations and ensuring business continuity aligned with RAMS management principles of railway systems. Next-generation technologies such as future railway mobile communication systems (FRMCS) driven by fifth generation (5G) network capabilities will be the key drivers in the transformation, accelerating the OT-IT convergence journey.
OT-IT convergence holds immense potential for railways, enabling enhanced operational efficiency, improved safety, optimal asset management, real-time monitoring, and improved customer experience. However, successful implementation requires addressing challenges such as legacy system integration, data security, interoperability, workforce skills, and scalability. It requires careful planning, robust cybersecurity measures, and a clear digital resilience strategy to ensure the seamless integration of these systems and mitigate potential risks.
