Implement OR Model-Driven Information
Systems at Norfolk Southern
Clark Cheng
Operations Research
Norfolk Southern Railway
Atlanta, Georgia
INFORMS 2012 Annual Meeting
Phoenix, Arizona
Agenda
•
•
•
•
Overview of OR Decision Support Systems at NS
Success Factors
General Technology Footprint
Examples of Technologies :
– Real-time System - SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)
• Locomotive Assignment and Routing System
– Decision Support System – Client Server Architecture
• Hump Yard Simulation Model and 3-D Animation
– BI/Analytics – GIS and Mobile Technology
• GIS Map Dashboard on iPAD
• Q&A
What Do the Users Want?
They need an operable “car”, not just an fancy “engine”
Success Factors
• Open Minded in Adopting New Technology
–
–
–
–
–
SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)
Cloud Computing
Grid Computing
RIA (Rich Internet Application)
Big Data (Data growth by 20 times by 2020)
• Consistent Delivery Method
–
–
–
–
–
Minimize footprint of technologies
Better user experience (UX)
Browser based user interfaces (UI)
Client Server Architecture and Distributed System
Deployed on NS production servers with 24x7 support
• Rapid Turnaround
– Close relationship with business users
– Serve the business needs
• Senior Management Support
– OR’s creativity and capabilities
General Technology Footprint
• Browser-based Applications
– High availability and automatic updates
• RIA User Interfaces
– (Java applet), GWT, Flex, Ajax
• Back End
– Java EJB, Hibernate, Apache Axis 2
– DB2, Teradata, MongoDB
• Middle Tier
– WebLogic, Apache, Tomcat
• Special Purpose Software
– Discrete event simulation framework
– Business rule management system (BRMS)
Software Reliability and Quality Control
•Source Code Version Control
• Merant PVCS
•Release Management and Incident Tracking
• HP Quality Center
•Automated Testing
• HP Load Runner
Locomotive Assignment & Routing System (LARS)
• Road Fleet Size Model
– Determine the number of locomotives needed in the road
fleet for current operations and forecasted traffic demand
• Short-Term Locomotive Surplus/Deficit Forecast
– Forecast locomotive surplus/deficit in 24 – 48 hours and
improve the productivity of locomotives
• Shop Routing and Real-time Assignments
– Model generates recommendations of optimal
assignments of locomotives to outbound trains
– Consider locomotive operations at a more detailed level
than any human could possibly do
S
O
A
P
Application
Security
Authentication
Authorization
SAML/SSO
User Roles
User Groups
S
e
Software Components and Environment:
• Production, Quality Control, Development and
r
Disaster Recovery environments
VMware ESX
v R
Private Cloud
P
RHEL Linux Grid
i C
Load balanced
CPLEX Solver
c
Tomcat server
SOAP Web service
e
Software components and Environment:
s
• Production, Quality Control, Development and Disaster Recovery deployment environment
IBM DB2 EE
Thin
Clients
Traffic
Manager
Apache
Webserver
• Browser based RIA desktop and
mobile client created using GWT,
Flex, Ajax
WebLogic
Server
L
a
y
e
r
J
D
B
C
R
E
S
T
Teradata
Materialized views
Stored procedures
Triggers
Index Partitions
Table Partitions
Interface
Enterprise Apps
GIS application
Real time
messaging
Operations data
Field information
Maintenance data
S
O
A
P
Application
Security
Authentication
Authorization
SAML/SSO
User Roles
User Groups
S
e
Software Components and Environment:
• Production, Quality Control, Development and
r
Disaster Recovery environments
VMware ESX
v R
Private Cloud
P
RHEL Linux Grid
i C
Load balanced
CPLEX Solver
c
Tomcat server
SOAP Web service
e
Software components and Environment:
s
• Production, Quality Control, Development and Disaster Recovery deployment environment
IBM DB2 EE
Thin
Clients
Traffic
Manager
Apache
Webserver
• Application delivery controlled and
local traffic managed by F5 BigIP
LTM (Local Traffic Manager)
WebLogic
Server
L
a
y
e
r
J
D
B
C
R
E
S
T
Teradata
Materialized views
Stored procedures
Triggers
Index Partitions
Table Partitions
Interface
Enterprise Apps
GIS application
Real time
messaging
Operations data
Field information
Maintenance data
S
O
A
P
Application
Security
Authentication
Authorization
SAML/SSO
User Roles
User Groups
S
e
Software Components and Environment:
• Production, Quality Control, Development and
r
Disaster Recovery environments
VMware ESX
v R
Private Cloud
P
RHEL Linux Grid
i C
Load balanced
CPLEX Solver
c
Tomcat server
SOAP Web service
e
Software components and Environment:
s
• Production, Quality Control, Development and Disaster Recovery deployment environment
IBM DB2 EE
Thin
Clients
Traffic
Manager
Apache
Webserver
• Clustered Apache web servers
with WebLogic proxy maintains
round robin affinity sessions
WebLogic
Server
L
a
y
e
r
J
D
B
C
R
E
S
T
Teradata
Materialized views
Stored procedures
Triggers
Index Partitions
Table Partitions
Interface
Enterprise Apps
GIS application
Real time
messaging
Operations data
Field information
Maintenance data
S
O
A
P
Application
Security
Authentication
Authorization
SAML/SSO
User Roles
User Groups
S
e
Software Components and Environment:
• Production, Quality Control, Development and
r
Disaster Recovery environments
VMware ESX
v R
Private Cloud
P
RHEL Linux Grid
i C
Load balanced
CPLEX Solver
c
Tomcat server
SOAP Web service
e
Software components and Environment:
s
• Production, Quality Control, Development and Disaster Recovery deployment environment
IBM DB2 EE
Thin
Clients
Traffic
Manager
Apache
Webserver
• Clustered WebLogic Application
server on UltraSPARC T2
WebLogic
Server
L
a
y
e
r
J
D
B
C
R
E
S
T
Teradata
Materialized views
Stored procedures
Triggers
Index Partitions
Table Partitions
Interface
Enterprise Apps
GIS application
Real time
messaging
Operations data
Field information
Maintenance data
S
O
A
P
Application
Security
Authentication
Authorization
SAML/SSO
User Roles
User Groups
S
e
Application Service Layer (SOA):
r
VMware ESX
v R
Private Cloud
P
RHEL Linux Grid
i C
Load balanced
• Consumes enterprise security
CPLEX Solver
c
Tomcat server
Authentication service to manage user
SOAP Web service
e
access
• Consumes
enterpriseenterprise
security Authentication
service to manage user access
• Consumes
Role-based
s
• Consumes enterprise Role based Authorization service to manage permissions
IBM DB2 EE
Authorization (RBA) service to
manage permissions
L
a
y
e
r
J
D
B
C
R
E
S
T
Teradata
Materialized views
Stored procedures
Triggers
Index Partitions
Table Partitions
Interface
Enterprise Apps
GIS application
Real time
messaging
Operations data
Field information
Maintenance data
S
O
A
P
Application
Security
Authentication
Authorization
SAML/SSO
User Roles
User Groups
S
e
Application Service Layer (SOA):
r
VMware ESX
v R
Private Cloud
P
RHEL Linux Grid
i C
Load balanced
• Optimization models deployed on
CPLEX Solver
c
Tomcat server
private cloud of 8 Linux servers
SOAP Web service
e
provides a grid of computational
• Consumes
enterprise security Authentication service to manage user access
resources
s
• Consumes enterprise Role based Authorization service to manage permissions
IBM DB2 EE
• Provides and consumes services to
start and control CPLEX grid servers
L
a
y
e
r
J
D
B
C
R
E
S
T
Teradata
Materialized views
Stored procedures
Triggers
Index Partitions
Table Partitions
Interface
Enterprise Apps
GIS application
Real time
messaging
Operations data
Field information
Maintenance data
S
O
A
P
Application
Security
Authentication
Authorization
SAML/SSO
User Roles
User Groups
S
e
Application Service Layer (SOA):
r
VMware ESX
v R
Private Cloud
P
RHEL Linux Grid
i C
Load balanced
• DB2 Enterprise Edition serves as
CPLEX Solver
c
Tomcat server
transactional database and NCR
SOAP Web service
e
Teradata as data warehouse
• Consumes enterprise security Authentication service to manage user access
s
• Consumes enterprise Role based Authorization service to manage permissions
IBM DB2 EE
L
a
y
e
r
J
D
B
C
R
E
S
T
Teradata
Materialized views
Stored procedures
Triggers
Index Partitions
Table Partitions
Interface
Enterprise Apps
GIS application
Real time
messaging
Operations data
Field information
Maintenance data
S
O
A
P
Application
Security
Authentication
Authorization
SAML/SSO
User Roles
User Groups
S
e
Application Service Layer (SOA):
r
VMware ESX
v R
Private Cloud
P
RHEL Linux Grid
i
C
Load balanced
• Provides locomotive location service
CPLEX Solver
c
Tomcat server
to GIS system
SOAP Web service
• Consumes locomotive pree
• Consumes
enterprise security
service to manage user access
assignments
decisionsAuthentication
from Field
s
Operations
• Consumes
enterprise Role based Authorization service to manage permissions
IBM DB2 EE
• Consumes real-time events reported
by trains passing scanners and GPS
beacon from locomotives
L
a
y
e
r
J
D
B
C
R
E
S
T
Teradata
Materialized views
Stored procedures
Triggers
Index Partitions
Table Partitions
Interface
Enterprise Apps
GIS application
Realtime messaging
Operations data
Field information
Maintenance data
Hump Yard Simulation (YardSIM)
• Analyze yard capacity and evaluate the impact of
changes in traffic pattern, infrastructure, resource,
and operating policy.
• A Decision Support System:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Web Interfaces
Discrete-event Simulator
3-D Animation
Yard Layout Editor
Process Modeler and Rule Engine, and
What-if Scenario Management
Yard Simulation Architecture
UI (Browser)
Application
Scenario &
Report
Manager
3D Animator &
Live Statistics
View 1
3D Animator &
Live Statistics
View n
Database
Database
Dispatcher
& Client
Manager
Simulator
&
Optimizer
Simulator
&
Optimizer
Trains
Trains Consist
Trip Plan
Yard Layout
Scenario Configuration
Yard Operating Rules
Reports
Statistics
Yard Simulation with 3D Animation
Built on the
Discrete Event
Framework
3D Animation
using the JAVA
3D APIs.
BRMS used for
Rules, Workflow
and Event
Processing.
Client-Server
model with
multiple clients
connecting to the
server in parallel
Yard Simulation Multiple View Windows
Receiving Tracks
Class Tracks
Yard Top View
Pullback Tracks
Operations Research GIS Dashboard
• Objective
– Monitor real-time train status
– Track locomotives and equipment
• Features:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Interactive GIS maps
Accessible through web browser
Train status summary
Train route display
Locomotive location and status
Locomotives due for maintenance
Equipment location and status
Operations Research GIS Map Dashboard Architecture
External Data Sources
MQ
Series
Proxy and Application Layer
Client
ESRI Flex API
Locomotives
(LARS)
Renderers
App Server
Weblogic 10G3
MQ
Series
Web Server
IPlanet
AJAX Request
Trains & Schedule
(OPD)
Data
Visualization
Response (XML)
Car Distribution
(CDM)
Geo-Location
App Server
Weblogic 10G3
Web Server
IPlanet
DNS – IP Clustered App and Web Servers
-Flare
-Symbol
-Chart
-Star Burst
-Route
Mapping Services
BING Maps
Tonnage Rating
(Web Service)
(Base Layer)
GIS Server
NS BP Layers
(Stations & Scanners)
ArcGIS 10.3 Server
History
(Teradata)
REST
NS Core Layers
(Rail Infrastructure)
Questions?