ASN.1 notation for exchange of data in computer-based railway control systems

Development of railway control systems aims at computerization. In most cases these systems are Distributed Real Time Systems. However, a huge problem in their putting into practice is the lack of interface standardization in the range of data structures and information exchange methods. It results in a variety of solutions, and thus in problems concerning cooperation of systems that come from different software vendors. Specification of protocols for data exchanging applications should therefore be created with the use of generally accepted standards. One of them is ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax Notation One) language, which shall be presented in this article.