InnoTrans 2026

For the InnoTrans 2026, this page showcases recent activities of the Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware related to digital rail. The group is led by Prof. Andreas Polze and belongs to the Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam.

Future railway systems need to be increasingly digitalized, which closely relates to group's research area of design patterns, implementation paradigms, and assessment methodologies for dependable distributed systems. Our expertise reaches from embedded systems and IoT, over operating systems and middlewares, to data center operation and Cloud applications. We actively research and teach in the fields of current and future digital railway systems in cooperation with leading partners from industry, academia, and operation.

SQuIRRL

Project SQuIRRL (Secure Quantum Infrastructure for Rail, Road, and Flight) improves the cost-effectiveness of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) hardware and examines its application in the mobility domains rail, road, and aviation.

Digitalization introduces new safety-critical communication. Security is therefore an increasing concern. Established cryptography largely relies on computational difficulty and is thus endangered by the advent of quantum computers. In contrast, QKD relies on the laws of quantum mechanics and thus offers prospects for the post-quantum era. However, QKD requires a fiber-optical link, which is impractical for mobile endpoints. To overcome this and further challenges regarding QKD in mobile use cases, we develop concepts, architectures, and prototypes.

FlexiDug

The project FlexiDug analyzes infrastructures in the Lausitz mining region and develops a concept for future transport opportunities. A digital twin using Building Information Models (BIM) will be created to represent the current railway infrastructures digitally and consistently. Retrofit sensors and self-organizing wireless networks will be developed to monitor vital infrastructure elements. To enable cost-efficient re-use of infrastructures for passenger service interwoven with on-demand cargo traffic, digital dynamic command and control technology, as well as a Dispatcher in the Cloud will be prototyped.

In 2022, the project FlexiDug had the honor of being been displayed at the booth of the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr, BMDV).

Digital Rail Summer School

The Digital Rail Summer School is a teaching, project, fair, and exchange platform to address challenges of digitalizing the railway sector by bringing together students, researchers and practitioners from IT, railway, and authorization sectors.

DiAK

The project DiAK (Digital St. Andrew's cross / Digitales Andreaskreuz) aims to increase safety and comfort for road users by digitalizing level crossings. With DiAK, road users equipped with Vehicle-to-everything (V2C) and Cellular Vehicle-to-everything (C-V2C) technology are provided with information such as warnings of passing trains at level crossings without barriers, the duration a level crossing will remain closed, or route alternatives.

RailChain

The project RailChain evaluated Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) for vendor-independent, secure digital identities and data recording in railway applications. To fulfill the real-time requirements for on-train juridical recording, domain-specific consensus protocols have been developed. A demonstrator – the Juridical Blockchain Recorder (JBR) – has been installed on the advanced TrainLab.

In 2022, the project RailChain had the honor of being been displayed in the advanced TrainLab at the outdoor area of the fair.

Rail2X

The Rail2X – Smart Services project explored use cases for Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology in the railway sector. Using the Wi-Fi-like technology (IEEE 802.11p), three examples have been realized: 1) service and diagnosis, for predictive maintenance using data collected by trains; 2) "Anrufschranke", to automatically open and close barriers for which opening and closing must normally be requested by phone; and 3) flag stops, so stopping of the train can be requested electronically instead of visually.

publications

Please find below a list of our railway-related publications.

Dirk Friedenberger, Lukas Pirl, Arne Boockmeyer, Robert Schmid, and Andreas Polze. A Train Dispatcher in the Cloud Generated from RDF Models. In 2025 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Software Architecture Companion (ICSA-C), 111–119. 2025. doi:10.1109/ICSA-C65153.2025.00023. [ PDF | | ]

@inproceedings{friedenberger2025train,
    author = "Friedenberger, Dirk and Pirl, Lukas and Boockmeyer, Arne and Schmid, Robert and Polze, Andreas",
    booktitle = "2025 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Software Architecture Companion (ICSA-C)",
    title = "{A Train Dispatcher in the Cloud Generated from RDF Models}",
    year = "2025",
    pages = "111-119",
    doi = "10.1109/ICSA-C65153.2025.00023",
    tags = "dirk.friedenberger,lukas.pirl,arne.boockmeyer,robert.schmid,andreas.polze,rail",
    pdf = "https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dirk-Friedenberger/publication/390516349\_A\_Train\_Dispatcher\_in\_the\_Cloud\_generated\_from\_RDF\_Models/links/67f1041549e91c0feadfe8d1/A-Train-Dispatcher-in-the-Cloud-Generated-from-RDF-Models.pdf"
}

Birgit Milius, Heiko Herholz, Ulrich Zimmermann, Anton Lichtenberg, Jens Bartnitzek, Dirk Hessenmüller, Egbert Graf, Christoph Jurkowski, Pia Höfers, Holger Koch, Matthias Werner, Billy Naumann, Andreas Polze, Arne Boockmeyer, Lukas Pirl, Dirk Friedenberger, Jörg Nolte, Reinhardt Karnapke, Navya Sneha Chatharajupalli, Said Weiß-Saoumi, and Gwyneth Mettendorf. FlexiDug - Flexible, digitale Systeme für den schienengebundenen Verkehr in Wachstumsregionen. Technical Report, Hannover : Technische Informationsbibliothek, 2025. doi:10.34657/18191. [ PDF | | ]

@techreport{milius2025flexidug,
    author = {Milius, Birgit and Herholz, Heiko and Zimmermann, Ulrich and Lichtenberg, Anton and Bartnitzek, Jens and Hessenm\"{u}ller, Dirk and Graf, Egbert and Jurkowski, Christoph and H\"{o}fers, Pia and Koch, Holger and Werner, Matthias and Naumann, Billy and Polze, Andreas and Boockmeyer, Arne and Pirl, Lukas and Friedenberger, Dirk and Nolte, J\"{o}rg and Karnapke, Reinhardt and Chatharajupalli, Navya Sneha and Weiß-Saoumi, Said and Mettendorf, Gwyneth},
    doi = "10.34657/18191",
    pdf = "https://oa.tib.eu/renate/bitstreams/c52f754e-0250-4fd6-b200-3126ff57e760/download",
    tags = "birgit.milius,heiko.herholz,ulrich.zimmermann,anton.lichtenberg,jens.bartnitzek,dirk.hessenmueller,egbert.graf,christoph.jurkowski,pia.hoefers,holger.koch,matthias.werner,billy.naumann,andreas.polze,arne.boockmeyer,lukas.pirl,dirk.friedenberger,joerg.nolte,reinhardt.karnapke,navya sneha.chatharajupalli,said.weiß-saoumi,gwyneth.mettendorf,rail",
    language = "de",
    title = {{FlexiDug - Flexible, digitale Systeme f\"{u}r den schienengebundenen Verkehr in Wachstumsregionen}},
    institution = "Hannover : Technische Informationsbibliothek",
    year = "2025",
    copyright = "Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivs 3.0 Germany"
}

Tarek Galal, Valeria Tisch, Katja Assaf, and Andreas Polze. From Paper Trails to Trust on Tracks: Adding Public Transparency to Railways via zk-SNARKs. In ZKDAPPS Workshop of the International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC). IEEE, 2025.

@inproceedings{galal2025,
    author = "Galal, Tarek and Tisch, Valeria and Assaf, Katja and Polze, Andreas",
    title = "{From Paper Trails to Trust on Tracks: Adding Public Transparency to Railways via zk-SNARKs}",
    booktitle = "ZKDAPPS Workshop of the International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC)",
    pages = "",
    year = "2025",
    organization = "IEEE",
    tags = "katja.assaf,andreas.polze,rail"
}

Clemens Tiedt, Katja Assaf, Robert Schmid, Lukas Pirl, and Andreas Polze. A Safety-Critical Object Controller With Inherited Trust. In 2025 28th International Symposium on Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC), 1–10. 2025. doi:10.1109/ISORC65339.2025.00018. [ PDF | | ]

@inproceedings{tiedt2025simplex,
    author = "Tiedt, Clemens and Assaf, Katja and Schmid, Robert and Pirl, Lukas and Polze, Andreas",
    title = "{A Safety-Critical Object Controller With Inherited Trust}",
    booktitle = "2025 28th International Symposium on Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC)",
    year = "2025",
    pages = "1-10",
    doi = "10.1109/ISORC65339.2025.00018",
    tags = "clemens.tiedt,katja.assaf,robert.schmid,lukas.pirl,andreas.polze,rail",
    pdf = "https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lukas-Pirl-2/publication/395991632\_A\_Safety-Critical\_Object\_Controller\_With\_Inherited\_Trust/links/69007c13a2b691617b6678e4/A-Safety-Critical-Object-Controller-With-Inherited-Trust.pdf"
}

Robert Schmid, Katja Assaf, Clemens Tiedt, Frederic Reiter, Dirk Friedenberger, and Andreas Polze. Managing Complexity in Safety-critical Railway Signaling Systems using Simplex Architectures. In ISORC 2024. May 2024.

@inproceedings{schmid2024simplex,
    author = "Schmid, Robert and Assaf, Katja and Tiedt, Clemens and Reiter, Frederic and Friedenberger, Dirk and Polze, Andreas",
    title = "{Managing Complexity in Safety-critical Railway Signaling Systems using Simplex Architectures}",
    booktitle = "ISORC 2024",
    month = "May",
    year = "2024",
    tags = "katja.assaf,robert.schmid,clemens.tiedt,frederic.reiter,dirk.friedenberger,andreas.polze,rail"
}

Arne Boockmeyer, Dirk Friedenberger, and Lukas Pirl. Using sumo for test automation and demonstration of digitalized railway concepts. May 2024. Paper presented at the SUMO User Conference 2024. [ PDF | ]

@misc{boockmeyer2024sumo,
    author = "Boockmeyer, Arne and Friedenberger, Dirk and Pirl, Lukas",
    address = "Berlin",
    type = "Paper",
    title = "Using SUMO for Test Automation and Demonstration of Digitalized Railway Concepts",
    booktitle = "SUMO User Conference 2024",
    note = "Paper presented at the SUMO User Conference 2024",
    tags = "dirk.friedenberger,lukas.pirl,arne.boockmeyer,rail",
    pdf = "https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382347580\_Using\_SUMO\_for\_Test\_Automation\_and\_Demonstration\_of\_Digitalized\_Railway\_Concepts\_Integrating\_SUMO\_with\_the\_Train\_Dispatcher\_in\_the\_Cloud/fulltext/6969f4fbabecff2489ec1094/Using-SUMO-for-Test-Automation-and-Demonstration-of-Digitalized-Railway-Concepts-Integrating-SUMO-with-the-Train-Dispatcher-in-the-Cloud.pdf",
    month = "May",
    year = "2024"
}

Arne Boockmeyer, Julian Baumann, Benedikt Schenkel, Clemens Tiedt, Dirk Friedenberger, Lukas Pirl, and Andreas Polze. Processing digital railway planning documents for early-stage simulations of railway networks. April 2024. Paper presented at the Transport Research Arena 2024. [ PDF | ]

@misc{boockmeyer2024tra,
    author = "Boockmeyer, Arne and Baumann, Julian and Schenkel, Benedikt and Tiedt, Clemens and Friedenberger, Dirk and Pirl, Lukas and Polze, Andreas",
    address = "Dublin",
    type = "Paper",
    title = "Processing Digital Railway Planning Documents for Early-stage Simulations of Railway Networks",
    booktitle = "Transport Research Arena 2024",
    note = "Paper presented at the Transport Research Arena 2024",
    pdf = "https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-032-06763-0\_20.pdf",
    tags = "dirk.friedenberger,lukas.pirl,arne.boockmeyer,andreas.polze,clemens.tiedt,julian.baumann,benedik.schenkel,rail",
    month = "April",
    year = "2024"
}

Lukas Pirl, Heiko Herholz, Dirk Friedenberger, Arne Boockmeyer, Andreas Polze, and Birgit Milius. Train dispatcher in the cloud — digitalising track warrant control for safe train operations in structurally transforming areas. In Transport Transitions: Advancing Sustainable and Inclusive Mobility, Lecture Notes in Mobility, 13 –19. Cham, 2025. Springer Nature Switzerland. doi:10.1007/978-3-032-06763-0_2#citeas. [ PDF | | ]

@InProceedings{pirl2025train,
    author = "Pirl, Lukas and Herholz, Heiko and Friedenberger, Dirk and Boockmeyer, Arne and Polze, Andreas and Milius, Birgit",
    tags = "dirk.friedenberger,lukas.pirl,arne.boockmeyer,andreas.polze,heiko.herholz,birgit.milius,rail",
    booktitle = "Transport Transitions: Advancing Sustainable and Inclusive Mobility",
    year = "2025",
    title = "Train Dispatcher in the Cloud — Digitalising Track Warrant Control for Safe Train Operations in Structurally Transforming Areas",
    booksubtitle = "Proceedings of the 10th Transport Research Arena (TRA) Conference, 2024, Dublin, Ireland -- Volume 2: Sustainable Transport Development",
    doi = "10.1007/978-3-032-06763-0\_2\#citeas",
    isbn = "978-3-032-06763-0",
    location = "Dublin, Ireland",
    pages = "13 -19",
    publisher = "Springer Nature Switzerland",
    series = "Lecture Notes in Mobility",
    address = "Cham",
    pdf = "https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-032-06763-0\_2.pdf"
}

Lukas Pirl, Arne Boockmeyer, Jossekin Beilharz, Paul Geppert, Andreas Polze, and Aldis Kundrats. Digital St. Andrew’s Cross: Using wireless technologies to connect cars and approaching trains. In 15th ITS European Congress, Lisbon, Portugal, 1239–1247. 2023.

@inproceedings{pirl2023digital,
    author = "Pirl, Lukas and Boockmeyer, Arne and Beilharz, Jossekin and Geppert, Paul and Polze, Andreas and Kundrats, Aldis",
    title = "{Digital St. Andrew’s Cross: Using wireless technologies to connect cars and approaching trains}",
    booktitle = "15th ITS European Congress, Lisbon, Portugal",
    pages = "1239--1247",
    year = "2023",
    tags = "lukas.pirl,arne.boockmeyer,jossekin.beilharz,paul.geppert,andreas.polze,aldis.kundrats,rail"
}

Ingo Schwarzer, Said Weiß-Saoumi, Roland Kittel, Tobias Friedrich, Koraltan Kaynak, Cemil Durak, Andreas Isbarn, Jörg Diestel, Jens Knittel, Marquart Franz, Carlos Morra, Susanne Stahnke, Jens Braband, Johannes Dittmann, Stephan Griebel, Andreas Krampf, Martin Link, Matthias Müller, Jens Radestock, Leo Strub, Kai Bleeke, Leander Jehl, Rüdiger Kapitza, Ines Messadi, Stefan Schmidt, Signe Schwarz-Rüsch, Lukas Pirl, Robert Schmid, Dirk Friedenberger, Jossekin Jakob Beilharz, Arne Boockmeyer, Andreas Polze, Ralf Röhrig, Hendrik Schäbe, and Ricky Thiermann. RailChain — Abschlussbericht. Technical Report 152, Universitätsverlag Potsdam, 2023. URL: https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/57740, doi:10.25932/publishup-57740. [ PDF | | ]

@techreport{schwarzer2023railchain,
    author = {Schwarzer, Ingo and Weiß-Saoumi, Said and Kittel, Roland and Friedrich, Tobias and Kaynak, Koraltan and Durak, Cemil and Isbarn, Andreas and Diestel, J{\"o}rg and Knittel, Jens and Franz, Marquart and Morra, Carlos and Stahnke, Susanne and Braband, Jens and Dittmann, Johannes and Griebel, Stephan and Krampf, Andreas and Link, Martin and M{\"u}ller, Matthias and Radestock, Jens and Strub, Leo and Bleeke, Kai and Jehl, Leander and Kapitza, R{\"u}diger and Messadi, Ines and Schmidt, Stefan and Schwarz-R{\"u}sch, Signe and Pirl, Lukas and Schmid, Robert and Friedenberger, Dirk and Beilharz, Jossekin Jakob and Boockmeyer, Arne and Polze, Andreas and R{\"o}hrig, Ralf and Sch{\"a}be, Hendrik and Thiermann, Ricky},
    tags = "ingo.schwarzer, said.weiß-saoumi, roland.kittel, tobias.friedrich, koraltan.kaynak, cemil.durak, andreas.isbarn, joerg.diestel, jens.knittel, marquart.franz, carlos.morra, susanne.stahnke, jens.braband, johannes.dittmann, stephan.griebel, andreas.krampf, martin.link, matthias.mueller, jens.radestock, leo.strub, kai.bleeke, leander.jehl, ruediger.kapitza, ines.messadi, stefan.schmidt, signe.schwarz-ruesch, lukas.pirl, robert.schmid, dirk.friedenberger, jossekin.jakob.beilharz, arne.boockmeyer, andreas.polze, ralf.roehrig, hendrik.schaebe, ricky.thiermann, rail",
    title = "{RailChain --- Abschlussbericht}",
    number = "152",
    isbn = "978-3-86956-550-7",
    doi = "10.25932/publishup-57740",
    journal = {Technische Berichte des Hasso-Plattner-Instituts f{\"u}r Softwaresystemtechnik an der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
    institution = "Universitätsverlag Potsdam",
    year = "2023",
    pdf = "https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/files/57740/tbhpi152.pdf",
    url = "https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/57740"
}

Philipp Schmidt, Dirk Friedenberger, Lukas Pirl, and Arne Boockmeyer. SUMO Railway Simulations for Integration Tests of EULYNX Components. May 2023. Poster presented at the SUMO User Conference 2023. [ PDF | ]

@misc{schmidt2023sumo,
    author = "Schmidt, Philipp and Friedenberger, Dirk and Pirl, Lukas and Boockmeyer, Arne",
    address = "Berlin",
    type = "Poster",
    title = "{SUMO} {Railway} {Simulations} for {Integration} {Tests} of {EULYNX} {Components}",
    booktitle = "SUMO User Conference 2023",
    note = "Poster presented at the SUMO User Conference 2023",
    tags = "philipp.schmidt,dirk.friedenberger,lukas.pirl,arne.boockmeyer,rail",
    pdf = "https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lukas-Pirl-2/publication/371608501\_SUMO\_Railway\_Simulations\_for\_Integration\_Tests\_of\_EULYNX\_Components/links/648c1d358de7ed28ba2f95c7/SUMO-Railway-Simulations-for-Integration-Tests-of-EULYNX-Components.pdf",
    month = "May",
    year = "2023"
}

Antony Kamp, Max Lietze, Luke Ortlam, Anton Persitzky, Christian Raue, Lucas Reisener, Lukas Pirl, and Arne Boockmeyer. Evaluating Possibilities of Flexible Train Schedules to Allow High-priority Sporadic Traffic. May 2023. Poster presented at the SUMO User Conference 2023. [ PDF | ]

@misc{kamp2023evaluating,
    author = "Kamp, Antony and Lietze, Max and Ortlam, Luke and Persitzky, Anton and Raue, Christian and Reisener, Lucas and Pirl, Lukas and Boockmeyer, Arne",
    address = "Berlin",
    type = "Poster",
    title = "Evaluating {Possibilities} of {Flexible} {Train} {Schedules} to {Allow} {High}-priority {Sporadic} {Traffic}",
    tags = "antony.kamp,max.lietze,luke.ortlam,anton.persitzky,christian.raue,lucas.reisener,lukas.pirl,arne.boockmeyer,rail",
    booktitle = "SUMO User Conference 2023",
    note = "Poster presented at the SUMO User Conference 2023",
    pdf = "https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lukas-Pirl-2/publication/371608300\_Evaluating\_Possibilities\_of\_Flexible\_Train\_Schedules\_to\_Allow\_High-priority\_Sporadic\_Traffic/links/648c1febb9ed6874a5b28652/Evaluating-Possibilities-of-Flexible-Train-Schedules-to-Allow-High-priority-Sporadic-Traffic.pdf",
    month = "May",
    year = "2023"
}

Dirk Friedenberger, Felix Grzelka, and Andreas Polze. Hybrid classifier for signal aspect detection in railway infrastructure. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems (EAIS), 1–8. IEEE, 2022. [ PDF | ]

@inproceedings{friedenberger2022hybrid,
    author = "Friedenberger, Dirk and Grzelka, Felix and Polze, Andreas",
    title = "Hybrid Classifier for Signal Aspect Detection in Railway Infrastructure",
    tags = "dirk.friedenberger,felix.grzelka,andreas.polze,rail",
    booktitle = "2022 IEEE International Conference on Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems (EAIS)",
    pages = "1--8",
    year = "2022",
    pdf = "https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/9787685/9787686/09787732.pdf",
    organization = "IEEE"
}

Jens Braband, Rüdiger Kapitza, Andreas Polze, and Ingo Schwarzer. RailChain — The Application of Distributed Ledger Technologies in Railway Operations. Signal + Draht, 114:16–23, June 2022. [ PDF | ]

@article{braband2022railchain,
    author = "Braband, Jens and Kapitza, Rüdiger and Polze, Andreas and Schwarzer, Ingo",
    title = "{RailChain --- The Application of Distributed Ledger Technologies in Railway Operations}",
    journal = "Signal + Draht",
    publisher = "DVV Media Group",
    volume = "114",
    issn = "0037-4997",
    pages = "16--23",
    year = "2022",
    month = "June",
    pdf = "https://railchain.berlin/assets/2022-06\_Signal-Draht\_RailChain-Anwendung-von-Distributed-Ledger-Technologien-im-Bahnbetrieb\_Braband-Kapitza-Polze-Schwarzer.pdf",
    tags = "jens.braband,rüdiger.kapitza,andreas.polze,ingo.schwarzer,rail"
}

Paul Geppert and Jossekin Beilharz. Integration of C-V2X Into a Hybrid Testbed to Co-Simulate ITS Applications and Scenarios. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E), 15–21. IEEE, 2022.

@inproceedings{geppert2022integration,
    author = "Geppert, Paul and Beilharz, Jossekin",
    title = "{Integration of C-V2X Into a Hybrid Testbed to Co-Simulate ITS Applications and Scenarios}",
    booktitle = "2022 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E)",
    pages = "15--21",
    year = "2022",
    organization = "IEEE",
    tags = "paul.geppert,jossekin.beilharz,rail"
}

Arne Boockmeyer, Robert Schmid, and Andreas Polze. Simulating Digital Rail: From PlanPro railway plannings to SUMO simulations. May 2022. [ PDF | video | ]

@misc{boockmeyer2022simulating,
    author = "Boockmeyer, Arne and Schmid, Robert and Polze, Andreas",
    title = "Simulating {Digital} {Rail}: {From} {PlanPro} railway plannings to {SUMO} simulations",
    month = "May",
    year = "2022",
    tags = "arne.boockmeyer,robert.schmid,andreas.polze,rail",
    pdf = "https://osm.hpi.de/publications/downloads/boockmeyer\_simulating\_2022.pdf",
    video = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEOlktfQRkc\&ab\_channel=EclipseFoundation"
}

Signe Rüsch, Kai Bleeke, Ines Messadi, Stefan Schmidt, Andreas Krampf, Katharina Olze, Susanne Stahnke, Robert Schmid, Lukas Pirl, Roland Kittel, Andreas Polze, Marquart Franz, Matthias Müller, Leander Jehl, and Ruediger Kapitza. ZugChain: Blockchain-Based Juridical Data Recording in Railway Systems. In 2022 52nd IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), 67–78. IEEE, 2022. [ PDF | ]

@inproceedings{ruesch2022zugchain,
    author = "Rüsch, Signe and Bleeke, Kai and Messadi, Ines and Schmidt, Stefan and Krampf, Andreas and Olze, Katharina and Stahnke, Susanne and Schmid, Robert and Pirl, Lukas and Kittel, Roland and Polze, Andreas and Franz, Marquart and Müller, Matthias and Jehl, Leander and Kapitza, Ruediger",
    title = "{ZugChain: Blockchain-Based Juridical Data Recording in Railway Systems}",
    tags = "signe.rüsch,kai.bleeke,ines.messadi,stefan.schmidt,andreas.krampf,katharina.olze,susanne.stahnke,robert.schmid,lukas.pirl,roland.kittel,andreas.polze,marquart.franz,matthias.müller,leander.jehl,ruediger.kapitza,rail",
    booktitle = "2022 52nd IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN)",
    pages = "67--78",
    year = "2022",
    organization = "IEEE",
    pdf = "https://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/users/ruesch/papers/ruesch-dsn22.pdf"
}

Arne Boockmeyer, Dirk Friedenberger, Lukas Pirl, Robert Schmid, Andreas Polze, Heiko Herholz, Gisela Freiin von Arnim, Pedro Lehmann Ibáñez, Torsten Friedrich, Christoph Klaus, and Christian Wilhelmi. From CCS-Planning to Testautomation: The Digital Testfield of Deutsche Bahn in Scheibenberg – A Case Study. In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E), 258–263. IEEE, 2021. doi:10.1109/IC2E52221.2021.00043. [ PDF | | ]

@inproceedings{boockmeyer2021ccsplanning,
    author = "Boockmeyer, Arne and Friedenberger, Dirk and Pirl, Lukas and Schmid, Robert and Polze, Andreas and Herholz, Heiko and von Arnim, Gisela Freiin and Ibáñez, Pedro Lehmann and Friedrich, Torsten and Klaus, Christoph and Wilhelmi, Christian",
    title = "{From CCS-Planning to Testautomation: The Digital Testfield of Deutsche Bahn in Scheibenberg -- A Case Study}",
    tags = "arne.boockmeyer,dirk.friedenberger,lukas.pirl,robert.schmid,andreas.polze,heiko.herholz,gisela.freiinvonarnim,pedro.lehmann-ibanez,torsten.friedrich,christoph.klaus,christian.wilhelmi,rail",
    booktitle = "2021 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E)",
    organization = "IEEE",
    year = "2021",
    pages = "258-263",
    doi = "10.1109/IC2E52221.2021.00043",
    pdf = "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2109.14378"
}

Valentin Schröter, Arne Boockmeyer, and Lukas Pirl. NetSD: Remote Access to Integrated SD Cards of Embedded Devices. In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E), 238–243. IEEE, 2021. doi:10.1109/IC2E52221.2021.00040. [ PDF | | ]

@inproceedings{schroeter2021netsd,
    author = "Schröter, Valentin and Boockmeyer, Arne and Pirl, Lukas",
    title = "{NetSD: Remote Access to Integrated SD Cards of Embedded Devices}",
    tags = "valentin.schroeter,arne.boockmeyer,lukas.pirl,rail",
    booktitle = "2021 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E)",
    organization = "IEEE",
    year = "2021",
    pages = "238-243",
    doi = "10.1109/IC2E52221.2021.00040",
    pdf = "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2109.15322"
}

Robert Schmid, Arne Boockmeyer, Lukas Pirl, Randolf Berglehner, Ibtihel Cherif, Andreas Korff, Bernd Elsweiler, and Andreas Polze. EULYNX-Live: Eine Methodik zum Validieren von Systemspezifikationen in hybriden Feldtests. Signal + Draht, 113:24–31, July 2021. [ PDF | ]

@article{schmid2021eulynx,
    author = "Schmid, Robert and Boockmeyer, Arne and Pirl, Lukas and Berglehner, Randolf and Cherif, Ibtihel and Korff, Andreas and Elsweiler, Bernd and Polze, Andreas",
    title = "{EULYNX-Live: Eine Methodik zum Validieren von Systemspezifikationen in hybriden Feldtests}",
    journal = "Signal + Draht",
    publisher = "DVV Media Group",
    volume = "113",
    issn = "0037-4997",
    pages = "24--31",
    year = "2021",
    month = "July",
    pdf = "https://osm.hpi.de/publications/downloads/schmid2021eulynx.pdf",
    tags = "robert.schmid,arne.boockmeyer,lukas.pirl,andreas.polze,rail"
}

Christian Meirich, Miriam Grünhäuser, Leo Strub, Lukas Pirl, Lucas Andreas Schubert, Christian Wille, Martin Dralle, Jürgen Reisig, Jannis Brack, Said Weiß-Saomi, and Andreas Polze. Rail2X - SmartServices (Projektabschlussbericht). Technical Report, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. – Institut für Verkehrssystemtechnik, August 2020. [ PDF | ]

@techreport{dlr135454,
    author = {Meirich, Christian and Gr{\"u}nh{\"a}user, Miriam and Strub, Leo and Pirl, Lukas and Schubert, Lucas Andreas and Wille, Christian and Dralle, Martin and Reisig, J{\"u}rgen and Brack, Jannis and Wei{\ss}-Saomi, Said and Polze, Andreas},
    editor = "Seifert, Katharina",
    volume = "36",
    title = "{Rail2X - SmartServices (Projektabschlussbericht)}",
    month = "August",
    year = "2020",
    series = {Schriftenreihe des DLR-Instituts f{\"u}r Verkehrssystemtechnik},
    institution = {Deutsches Zentrum f{\"u}r Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. – Institut f{\"u}r Verkehrssystemtechnik},
    keywords = {Rail2X; V2X; Kommunikation; Bedarfshalt; Bahn{\"u}bergang; Service und Diagnose},
    pdf = "https://elib.dlr.de/135454/1/Rail2X\_Abschlussbericht\_final.pdf",
    tags = "lukas.pirl,andreas.polze,rail"
}

Daniel Richter, Lukas Pirl, Jossekin Beilharz, Christian Werling, and Andreas Polze. Performance of Real-Time Wireless Communication for Railway Environments with IEEE 802.11p. In Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). 2019. doi:10.24251/HICSS.2019.907. [ PDF | slides | | ]

@inproceedings{richter2019performance,
    author = "Richter, Daniel and Pirl, Lukas and Beilharz, Jossekin and Werling, Christian and Polze, Andreas",
    title = "{Performance of Real-Time Wireless Communication for Railway Environments with IEEE 802.11p}",
    tags = "daniel.richter,lukas.pirl,jossekin.beilharz,christian.werling,andreas.polze,rail",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)",
    year = "2019",
    doi = "10.24251/HICSS.2019.907",
    pdf = "https://hdl.handle.net/10125/60190",
    slides = "https://osm.hpi.de/publications/downloads/richter2019performance-slides.pdf"
}

teaching

Our core teaching activity in the field is the lecture Digital Rail and the associated Digital Rail Summer School. Please refer to the website of the iteration 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, or 2026 for more details. Moreover, our research and cooperation activities influence further teaching activities. Such teaching activities include seminars, lectures, Bachelor's projects, and Master's projects. Selected works are documented on the website of our IoT lab. We also supervise theses in the field. Please find lists of theses regarding topics of digital rail below.

Master's theses

Sebastian Staib. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) for Railway: Authentication Methods and Architecture for a "Key Filling Station". Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2026. Co-supervision by Katja Assaf and Lukas Pirl.

@MastersThesis{staib26quantum,
    author = "Staib, Sebastian",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    title = {{Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) for Railway: Authentication Methods and Architecture for a "Key Filling Station"}},
    note = "Co-supervision by Katja Assaf and Lukas Pirl",
    year = "2026",
    tags = "katja.assaf,lukas.pirl,rail"
}

Christian Kaiser. Unterstützung des Zulassungsverfahrens von Bahnsystemen durch ontologiebasierte Systemmodelle. Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2026. Co-supervision by Dirk Friedenberger and Lukas Pirl.

@MastersThesis{kaiser26unterstützung,
    author = "Kaiser, Christian",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    title = "{Unterstützung des Zulassungsverfahrens von Bahnsystemen durch ontologiebasierte Systemmodelle}",
    note = "Co-supervision by Dirk Friedenberger and Lukas Pirl",
    year = "2026",
    tags = "dirk.friedenberger,lukas.pirl,rail"
}

Laura Rost. Automatisierte Bestandsplandigitalisierung in der Eisenbahninfrastrukturplanung. Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2026. Co-supervision by Arne Boockmeyer and Lukas Pirl.

@MastersThesis{rost26automatisierte,
    author = "Rost, Laura",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    title = "{Automatisierte Bestandsplandigitalisierung in der Eisenbahninfrastrukturplanung}",
    note = "Co-supervision by Arne Boockmeyer and Lukas Pirl",
    year = "2026",
    tags = "arne.boockmeyer,lukas.pirl,rail"
}

Ahmed Azzouz. Anomalieerkennung zur Überwachung von Schienenverkehrssystemen mittels Smartphone-Sensoren. Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2025. Co-supervision by Dirk Friedenberger.

@MastersThesis{azzouz25sensors,
    author = "Azzouz, Ahmed",
    title = "{Anomalieerkennung zur Überwachung von Schienenverkehrssystemen mittels Smartphone-Sensoren}",
    note = "Co-supervision by Dirk Friedenberger",
    year = "2025",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    tags = "dirk.friedenberger,rail"
}

Philipp Schmidt. Using Railway Simulations for Integration Tests of EULYNX Components. Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2024. Co-supervision by Arne Boockmeyer and Lukas Pirl.

@MastersThesis{schmidt24using,
    author = "Schmidt, Philipp",
    title = "{Using Railway Simulations for Integration Tests of EULYNX Components}",
    note = "Co-supervision by Arne Boockmeyer and Lukas Pirl",
    year = "2024",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    tags = "lukas.pirl,arne.boockmeyer,rail"
}

Mario Freund. Using Machine Learning for Intrusion Detection in a Combined Car and Train Monitoring System. Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2023. Jointly with INCYDE GmbH; Co-supervision at HPI by Robert Schmid, Kordian Gontarska, and Katja Assaf. [ PDF | ]

@MastersThesis{freund23using,
    author = "Freund, Mario",
    title = "{Using Machine Learning for Intrusion Detection in a Combined Car and Train Monitoring System}",
    note = "Jointly with INCYDE GmbH; Co-supervision at HPI by Robert Schmid, Kordian Gontarska, and Katja Assaf",
    year = "2023",
    pdf = "https://osm.hpi.de/bookshelf/Details/558",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    tags = "robert.schmid,kordian.gontarska,katja.assaf,rail"
}

Paul Geppert. Bridging the ITS-G5 and C-V2X Gap: Development and Simulation of a V2X converter. Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2022. Co-supervision by Jossekin Beilharz. [ PDF | ]

@MastersThesis{geppert22bridging,
    author = "Geppert, Paul",
    title = "{Bridging the ITS-G5 and C-V2X Gap: Development and Simulation of a V2X converter}",
    note = "Co-supervision by Jossekin Beilharz",
    year = "2022",
    pdf = "https://osm.hpi.de/bookshelf/Details/545",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    tags = "jossekin.beilharz,rail"
}

Hendrik Tjabben. A Distributed Architecture for a Safety-critical ETCS-OBU. Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2021. Jointly with Railergy; Co-supervision at HPI by Arne Boockmeyer, Lukas Pirl, and Robert Schmid. [ PDF | ]

@MastersThesis{tjabben21distributed,
    author = "Tjabben, Hendrik",
    title = "{A Distributed Architecture for a Safety-critical ETCS-OBU}",
    note = "Jointly with Railergy; Co-supervision at HPI by Arne Boockmeyer, Lukas Pirl, and Robert Schmid",
    year = "2021",
    pdf = "https://osm.hpi.de/bookshelf/Details/546",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    tags = "arne.boockmeyer,robert.schmid,lukas.pirl,rail"
}

Benedikt Bock. Opportunistic Routing within Public Transportation Infrastructure. Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2020. Co-supervision by Jossekin Beilharz and Lukas Pirl. [ PDF | ]

@MastersThesis{bock20opportunistic,
    author = "Bock, Benedikt",
    title = "{Opportunistic Routing within Public Transportation Infrastructure}",
    note = "Co-supervision by Jossekin Beilharz and Lukas Pirl",
    year = "2020",
    pdf = "https://osm.hpi.de/bookshelf/Details/524",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    tags = "jossekin.beilharz,lukas.pirl,rail"
}

Arne Boockmeyer. Hybrides Testbed zur Fehlerinjektion in verteilten Softwaresystemen. Master's thesis, Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, 2020. Co-supervision by Jossekin Beilharz and Lukas Pirl. [ PDF | ]

@MastersThesis{boockmeyer20hybrides,
    author = "Boockmeyer, Arne",
    title = "{Hybrides Testbed zur Fehlerinjektion in verteilten Softwaresystemen}",
    note = "Co-supervision by Jossekin Beilharz and Lukas Pirl",
    year = "2020",
    pdf = "https://osm.hpi.de/bookshelf/Details/516",
    school = "Professorship for Operating Systems and Middleware, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam",
    tags = "jossekin.beilharz,lukas.pirl,rail"
}

Bachelor's theses

▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒. Vergleich der Implementierungen Fast DDS und Cyclone DDS des Data Distribution Service im Rahmen des Osmium-Projekts. Bachelorarbeit, 2024.

Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH

@unpublished{_24vergleich,
    author = "▒▒▒▒▒, ▒▒▒▒▒",
    title = "{Vergleich der Implementierungen Fast DDS und Cyclone DDS des Data Distribution Service im Rahmen des Osmium-Projekts}",
    year = "2024",
    note = "Bachelorarbeit",
    comment = {Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH},
    school = "Hasso-Plattner-Institut der Universität Potsdam",
    type = "Bachelorarbeit",
    tags = "bp2023ap1,rail"
}

▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒. Testen der Verlässlichkeit mittels Fehlerinjektion am Beispiel einer Plattform für den verlässlichen Cloud-Betrieb von IT-Anwendungen der Bahn. Bachelorarbeit, 2024.

Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH

@unpublished{_24testen,
    author = "▒▒▒▒▒, ▒▒▒▒▒",
    title = "{Testen der Verlässlichkeit mittels Fehlerinjektion am Beispiel einer Plattform für den verlässlichen Cloud-Betrieb von IT-Anwendungen der Bahn}",
    year = "2024",
    note = "Bachelorarbeit",
    comment = {Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH},
    institution = "Hasso-Plattner-Institut der Universität Potsdam",
    type = "Bachelorarbeit",
    tags = "bp2023ap1,rail"
}

▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒. Fehlertoleranzmechanismen für die Kommunikation innerhalb verteilter Systeme am Beispiel einer Bahnanwendung. Bachelorarbeit, 2024.

Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH

@unpublished{_24fehlertoleranzmechanismen,
    author = "▒▒▒▒▒, ▒▒▒▒▒",
    title = "{Fehlertoleranzmechanismen für die Kommunikation innerhalb verteilter Systeme am Beispiel einer Bahnanwendung}",
    year = "2024",
    note = "Bachelorarbeit",
    comment = {Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH},
    school = "Hasso-Plattner-Institut der Universität Potsdam",
    type = "Bachelorarbeit",
    tags = "bp2023ap1,rail"
}

▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒. Entwicklung automatisierter Tests für eine verlässliche Cloud-Plattform für Anwendungen im Schienenverkehr am Beispiel von FlexiDug. Bachelorarbeit, 2024.

Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH

@unpublished{_24entwicklung,
    author = "▒▒▒▒▒, ▒▒▒▒▒",
    title = "{Entwicklung automatisierter Tests für eine verlässliche Cloud-Plattform für Anwendungen im Schienenverkehr am Beispiel von FlexiDug}",
    year = "2024",
    note = "Bachelorarbeit",
    comment = {Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH},
    school = "Hasso-Plattner-Institut der Universität Potsdam",
    type = "Bachelorarbeit",
    tags = "bp2023ap1,rail"
}

▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒. Auswahl heterogen-redundanter Rechenknoten zur verlässlichen Programmausführung in verteilten Systemen. Bachelorarbeit, 2024.

Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH

@unpublished{_24auswahl,
    author = "▒▒▒▒▒, ▒▒▒▒▒",
    title = "{Auswahl heterogen-redundanter Rechenknoten zur verlässlichen Programmausführung in verteilten Systemen}",
    year = "2024",
    note = "Bachelorarbeit",
    comment = {Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH},
    school = "Hasso-Plattner-Institut der Universität Potsdam",
    type = "Bachelorarbeit",
    tags = "bp2023ap1,rail"
}

▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒. Orchestrierung von räumlichen Redundanzmechanismen für verteilte Systeme durch Erweiterungen von Kubernetes-Programmierschnittstellen am Beispiel einer Bahnanwendung. Bachelorarbeit, 2024.

Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH

@unpublished{_24orchestrierung,
    author = "▒▒▒▒▒, ▒▒▒▒▒",
    title = "{Orchestrierung von räumlichen Redundanzmechanismen für verteilte Systeme durch Erweiterungen von Kubernetes-Programmierschnittstellen am Beispiel einer Bahnanwendung}",
    year = "2024",
    note = "Bachelorarbeit",
    comment = {Bachelorprojekt "Neue Ansätze in der Entwicklung digitaler Leit- und Sicherungstechnik" in Kooperation mit der DB Systel GmbH},
    school = "Hasso-Plattner-Institut der Universität Potsdam",
    type = "Bachelorarbeit",
    tags = "bp2023ap1,rail"
}

▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒. Architektur und Entwicklung einer REST-API zur Simulation von Zugverkehr am Beispiel des LEAG-Schienennetzes in der Lausitz. Bachelorarbeit, 2023.