System and method for testing communication in a vehicle system

• US 10,034,119 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2014
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Global Sourcing LLC (Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Kellner, Steven Andrew, Foy, Robert James, Palanti, Robert Carmen, Schroeck, Brian William, Connolly, Paul Aaron
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao, Kwang B
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, HARDIKKUMAR D
• Application Number:
  US14/537,346
• Publication Number:
  US 20160134994A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,352 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/40 Circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Communication methods and systems wirelessly communicate onboard messages between communication devices onboard the same vehicle. The communication devices can wirelessly communicate with other communication devices onboard other vehicles in a vehicle system for remote control of the vehicles. Receipt of the onboard messages at the communication devices is determined, and operative states of the communication devices are determined based at least in part on the receipt of the onboard messages at the communication devices. Determining these operative states in this manner can allow for an operator to identify communication faults with the communication devices prior to departing the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

wirelessly communicating a first onboard message from a first communication device onboard a first vehicle to a second communication device that also is onboard the first vehicle, the first communication device and the second communication device configured to wirelessly communicate with one or more other communication devices disposed onboard one or more second vehicles in a vehicle system that includes the first vehicle and the one or more second vehicles for remote control of at least one of the first vehicle or the one or more second vehicles;

determining receipt of the first onboard message at the second communication device;

wirelessly communicating a second onboard message from the second communication device to the first communication device;

determining receipt of the second onboard message at the first communication device; and

determining a first operative state of the first communication device and a second operative state of the second communication device of the first vehicle based at least in part on the receipt of the first onboard message at the second communication device and the receipt of the second onboard message at the first communication device,

wherein the first operative state of the first communication device and the second operative state of the second communication device indicate closure of a switch conductively coupled with the first communication device and the second communication device, or indicate opening of the switch conductively decoupled with the first communication device and the second communication device;

wherein the closure of the switch corresponds to an occurrence of a communication fault and the opening of the switch corresponds to a non-occurrence of the communication fault.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first operative state and the second operative state includes examining content of the first onboard message and examining content of the second onboard message.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicatively linking the first vehicle with the one or more second vehicles responsive to determining the first operative state of the first communication device and the second operative state of the second communication device.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising one or more of wirelessly sending or wirelessly receiving a command message with one or more of the first communication device or the second communication device to remotely control movement of the first vehicle or the one or more second vehicles responsive to the first vehicle being communicatively linked with the one or more second vehicles.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more of wirelessly sending or wirelessly receiving the command message is performed by the first communication device, and further comprising switching to one or more of wirelessly sending or wirelessly receiving the command message with the second communication device responsive to the first operative state of the first communication device indicating the communication fault.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

wirelessly communicating a first off-board message from the first communication device to one or more third communication devices disposed onboard the one or more second vehicles;

determining receipt of the first off-board message at the one or more third communication devices;

wirelessly receiving a second off-board message at the second communication device from the one or more third communication devices;

determining receipt of the second off-board message at the second communication device; and

determining one or more third operative states of the one or more third communication devices based at least in part on the receipt of the first off-board message at the one or more third communication devices and the receipt of the second off-board message at the second communication device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein wirelessly communicating the first off-board message includes one or more of transmitting or broadcasting the first off-board message from the first communication device to one or more of a wayside message repeater device or a tower communication system that is off-board the vehicle system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein wirelessly receiving the second off-board message includes receiving the second off-board message from one or more of the wayside message repeater device or the tower communication system that is off-board the vehicle system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operative state of the first communication device indicates an ability of the first communication device to wirelessly communicate with the one or more other communication devices and the second operative state of the second communication device indicates an ability of the second communication device to wirelessly communicate with the one or more other communication devices.

10. A system comprising:

a first communication device configured to be disposed onboard a first vehicle in a vehicle system that also includes one or more second vehicles;

a second communication device configured to also be disposed onboard the first vehicle; and

one or more processors configured to be disposed onboard the first vehicle, wherein the first communication device and the second communication device are configured to wirelessly communicate with one or more other communication devices disposed onboard the one or more second vehicles for remote control of at least one of the first vehicle or the one or more second vehicles,

wherein the first communication device is configured to wirelessly communicate a first onboard message to the second communication device and the second communication device is configured to wirelessly communicate a second onboard message to the first communication device,

wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine receipt of the first onboard message at the second communication device and receipt of the second onboard message at the first communication device, and

wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine a first operative state of the first communication device and a second operative state of the second communication device of the first vehicle based at least in part on the receipt of the first onboard message at the second communication device and the receipt of the second onboard message at the first communication device,

wherein the first operative state of the first communication device and the second operative state of the second communication device indicate closure of a switch conductively coupled with the first communication device and the second communication device, or indicate opening of the switch conductively decoupled with the first communication device and the second communication device,

wherein closure of the switch corresponds to an occurrence of a communication fault and the opening of the switch corresponds to a non-occurrence of the communication fault.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the first operative state and the second operative state by examining content of the first onboard message and examining content of the second onboard message.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors are configured to communicatively link the first vehicle with the one or more second vehicles responsive to determining the first operative state of the first communication device and the second operative state of the second communication device.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the first communication device also is configured to wirelessly communicate a first off-board message to one or more third communication devices disposed onboard the one or more second vehicles and the second communication device also is configured to wirelessly receive a second off-board message at the second communication device from the one or more third communication devices,

wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine receipt of the first off-board message at the one or more third communication devices and receipt of the second off-board message at the second communication device, and

wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine one or more third operative states of the one or more third communication devices based at least in part on the receipt of the first off-board message at the one or more third communication devices and the receipt of the second off-board message at the second communication device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first communication device is configured to wirelessly communicate the first off-board message by one or more of transmitting or broadcasting the first off-board message to one or more of a wayside message repeater device or a tower communication system that is off-board the vehicle system.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the second communication device is configured to wirelessly receive the second off-board message from one or more of the wayside message repeater device or the tower communication system that is off-board the vehicle system.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the first operative state of the first communication device indicates an ability of the first communication device to wirelessly communicate with the one or more other communication devices and the second operative state of the second communication device indicates an ability of the second communication device to wirelessly communicate with the one or more other communication devices.

17. A system comprising:

a first transceiver device configured to be disposed onboard a first vehicle in a vehicle system that also includes one or more second vehicles, the first transceiver device including a first transmitter and a first receiver;

a second transceiver device configured to also be disposed onboard the first vehicle, the second transceiver device including a second transmitter and a second receiver, wherein the first transmitter is configured to wirelessly transmit a first onboard message to the second receiver and the second transmitter is configured to wirelessly transmit a second onboard message to the first receiver; and

one or more processors configured to be disposed onboard the first vehicle and to determine operative states of the first transceiver device and the second transceiver device based on receipt of the first onboard message at the second receiver and receipt of the second onboard message at the first receiver, and

wherein, responsive to determining that the first onboard message and the second onboard message were received, the one or more processors are configured to communicatively link one or more of the first transceiver device or the second transceiver device with one or more third transceiver devices disposed onboard the one or more second vehicles,

wherein the operative states of the first transceiver device and the second operative state of the second transceiver device indicate closure of a switch conductively coupled with the first transceiver device and the second transceiver device, or indicate opening of the switch conductively decoupled with the first transceiver device and the second transceiver device,

wherein closure of the switch corresponds to an occurrence of a communication fault and opening of the switch corresponds to a non-occurrence of the communication fault.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first transmitter also is configured to wirelessly transmit a first off-board message to the one or more third transceiver devices and the second receiver also is configured to wirelessly receive a second off-board message from the one or more third communication devices, and

wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine one or more third operative states of the one or more third transceiver devices based at least in part on receipt of the first off-board message at the one or more third communication devices and receipt of the second off-board message at the second receiver.

19. A system comprising:

one or more processors configured to be disposed onboard a first vehicle in a vehicle system that also includes one or more second vehicles;

wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine receipt of a first onboard message from a first communication device onboard the first vehicle at a second communication device onboard the first vehicle and receipt of a second onboard message from the second communication device at the first communication device, the first communication device and the second communication device configured to wirelessly communicate with one or more other communication devices disposed onboard the one or more second vehicles for remote control of at least one of the first vehicle or the one or more second vehicles, and

wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine a first operative state of the first communication device and a second operative state of the second communication device of the first vehicle based at least in part on the receipt of the first onboard message at the second communication device and the receipt of the second onboard message at the first communication device,

wherein the first operative state of the first communication device and the second operative state of the second communication device indicate closure of a switch conductively coupled with the first communication device and the second communication device, or indicate opening of the switch conductively decoupled with the first communication device and the second communication device;

wherein closure of the switch corresponds to an occurrence of a communication fault and opening of the switch corresponds to a non-occurrence of the communication fault.