Train control system, base-station control device, ground wireless base station, and on-vehicle wireless station

• US 10,597,056 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2015
• Issued: 03/24/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Aoyama, Tetsuya, Nagashima, Seiya
• Primary Examiner(s): McCarry, Jr., Robert J
• Application Number:
  US15/540,205
• Publication Number:
  US 20180334179A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,867 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 15/0018 Communication with or on the vehicle or train
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 15/0027 Radio-based, e.g. using GSM-R
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 2201/00 Control methods
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 2205/00 Communication or navigation systems for railway traffic
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/20 Trackside control of safe travel of vehicle or train, e.g. braking curve calculation
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/70 Details of trackside communication
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 21/00 Systems for transmitting the position of an object with respect to a predetermined reference system, e.g. tele-autographic system
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/00 Near-field transmission systems, e.g. inductive or capacitive transmission systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/02 Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas RAKE receivers H04B1/7115
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/08 by repeating transmission, e.g. Verdan system H04L1/1858 and H04L1/189 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/42 for mass transport vehicles, e.g. buses, trains or aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks

Abstract

A train control system controls an operation of a train by transmitting and receiving, between an on-vehicle wireless station mounted on the train and a ground wireless base station, information that includes train control information by wireless communication. General transmission information, which is information included in the information that includes the train control information and is transmitted only once from the ground wireless base station to the on-vehicle wireless station. The train control information is transmitted repeatedly a plurality of times from the ground wireless base station to the on-vehicle wireless station. Among the repeatedly transmitted train control information, the on-vehicle wireless station uses, for an operation of the train, a piece of train control information, which the on-vehicle wireless station receives without lack of data lack for a first time.

Claims

1. A train control system for controlling an operation of a train by transmitting and receiving, between an on-vehicle wireless station mounted on the train and a ground wireless base station, information that includes train control information by wireless communication, the train control information being information for controlling an operation of the train, wherein

the information that includes the train control information further includes general transmission information that is information other than the train control information,

the ground wireless base station includes a first processor to execute a first program and a first memory to store the first program which, when executed by the first processor, performs processes of

transmitting the general transmission information only once from the ground wireless base station to the on-vehicle wireless station,

transmitting the train control information repeatedly a plurality of times from the ground wireless base station to the on-vehicle wireless station, and

among the repeatedly transmitted train control information, the on-vehicle wireless station uses, for an operation of the train, a piece of train control information, which the on-vehicle wireless station receives without lack of data for a first time.

2. The train control system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication is performed by using time slots.

3. The train control system according to claim 2, wherein, when an empty slot is present among the time slots, the first processor of the ground wireless base station executes transmitting the train control information by using the empty slot to increase a number of repetitions of transmission of the train control information.

4. The train control system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication is performed by using frequency slots.

5. The train control system according to claim 4, wherein, when an empty slot is present among the frequency slots, the first processor of the ground wireless base station executes transmitting the train control information by using the empty slot to increase a number of repetitions of transmission of the train control information.

6. The train control system according to claim 1, wherein, when emergency information on an operation of the train is generated, the train control information is replaced by the emergency information and the emergency information is transmitted.

7. The train control system according to claim 1, wherein

a plurality of the on-vehicle wireless stations are arranged on the train,

a plurality of the ground wireless base stations are arranged, and

the plurality of on-vehicle wireless stations receive, from different ground wireless base stations among the ground wireless base stations, identical pieces of the train control information and identical pieces of the general transmission information.

8. The train control system according to claim 1, wherein

a plurality of the on-vehicle wireless stations are arranged on the train,

a plurality of the ground wireless base stations are arranged,

the plurality of on-vehicle wireless stations receive identical pieces of the train control information from different ground wireless base stations among the ground wireless base stations, and

the plurality of on-vehicle wireless stations receive different pieces of the general transmission information from different ground wireless base stations among the ground wireless base stations.

9. The train control system according to claim 1, wherein

the ground wireless base station is controlled by a base-station control device, and

a number of transmissions of the train control information is set by the base-station control device.

10. The train control system according to claim 9, wherein

a measurement information collecting device is connected to the base-station control device, and

the measurement information collecting device includes a second processor to execute a second program and a second memory to store the second program which, when executed by the second processor, performs processes of:

collecting and accumulating a communication quality measurement result; and

specifying an area in which a communication quality deteriorates in accordance with the communication quality measurement result accumulated, and

instructing the base-station control device to increase a number of repetitions of transmission for the area in which a communication quality deteriorates.

11. A base-station control device to control a ground wireless base station of a train control system for controlling an operation of a train by transmitting and receiving, between an on-vehicle wireless station mounted on the train and the ground wireless base station, information that includes train control information by wireless communication, the train control information being information for controlling an operation of the train, wherein

the information that includes the train control information further includes general transmission information that is information other than the train control information,

the general transmission information is transmitted only once from the ground wireless base station to the on-vehicle wireless station,

transmission of the train control information is repeated a plurality of times from the ground wireless base station to the on-vehicle wireless station,

among the repeatedly transmitted train control information, the on-vehicle wireless station uses, for an operation of the train, a piece of train control information, which the on-vehicle wireless station receives without lack of data for a first time, and wherein

the base-station control device sets, to the ground wireless base station, a number of transmissions of the train control information.

12. A ground wireless base station of a train control system for controlling an operation of a train by transmitting and receiving, between an on-vehicle wireless station mounted on the train, information that includes train control information by wireless communication, the train control information being information for controlling an operation of the train, wherein

the information that includes the train control information further includes general transmission information that is information other than the train control information,

the ground wireless base station transmits the general transmission information only once to the on-vehicle wireless station,

the ground wireless base station transmits the train control information repeatedly a plurality of times to the on-vehicle wireless station, and

among the repeatedly transmitted train control information, the on-vehicle wireless station uses, for an operation of the train, a piece of train control information, which the on-vehicle wireless station receives without lack of data for a first time.