###### Abstract  
The degradation of communication cable insulators reduces the availability of the train control system and is caused by the degrading of data transmission line parameters. Due to extremely varying environmental conditions in the railway industry, the effect of data transmission line degradation on the critical parameters of the surge arrester that is used in wayside equipment is not known. The surge arrester module is very important in the railway industry, as it enables the protection of sensitive parts of wayside equipment, especially communication interfaces existing in wheel detectors, evaluators, signals, etc. These are critical to the safe and efficient management of railway infrastructure. The process of selecting a surge arrester component for a two-level voltage input to enable the examination of the degradation impact of a cable insulator used in rail signaling equipment on the performance of the surge arrester is presented in this paper based on the standards, as well as practical experience. To achieve this objective, an innovative design of the goal function that can be adapted to the new requirements of various industry sectors is proposed. The use of a two-stage solution verification is a unique feature of this method. The results indicate that the proper selection of the arrester components ensures the effect of degradation of the communication cable has an insignificant influence on the power dissipation of the surge exposures. cable aging; surge arrester; genetic algorithm; reliability of transportation system Article  
The Effect of Cable Aging on Surge Arresters Designed by Genetic Algorithm  
[PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], D.  
Train movement is ongoing in the occupied section, so there is no possibility for the next train to travel through it. The CAN line architecture is very useful because it offers the possibility of minimizing the length of cables used to create a network (bus topology). This helps to reduce system maintenance and installation costs. However, it also has some disadvantages, as a long network cabling system is affected by the large disturbances present in the railway industry, such as high voltages of up to 25 kV [6], currents of several kA, and the associated electromagnetic field [7]. These phenomena create new constraints that engineers must overcome in order to design a module [8; 9; 10] that is robust and resistant to exposure to such stresses. Overvoltage immunity is well described in the associated literature [11; 12; 13] but mainly in the context of analysis of power supply lines, which are significantly more robust than communication ports. A few papers provide analyses of the communication links [14; 15; 16; 17; 18], but these concentrate on test performance rather than an analysis of the limits, which gives more detailed information about the device and creates new advantages during the life of a product (selection of alternatives). Several artificial algorithms can be used to provide the most optimal solution to the problem at hand, but due to specific circumstances, only one of them was selected. Since simulated annealing is optimized for a single suboptimal solution only, numerous suboptimal solutions could lead to a similar value of the objective function. In consequence, it was rejected. Ant colony optimization was disqualified because it would have easily fallen into the trap of achieving the local optimum. The genetic algorithm (GA) is therefore the most flexible and universal way to find a suboptimal solution for the circuit under analysis. As a consequence of the evolution of science and technology [19], it is feasible to perform the evaluation of protection modules with the help of a genetic algorithm. It can be applied in various ways to design optimization of circuits. In paper [20], GA is used to improve component location and routing. In addition, paper [21] provides an instance of applying GA for the purpose of thermal analysis, which increases the environmental stability of the module.