Cellular broadband wireless access network for a railway
First Claim
1. A cellular broadband wireless access network for a railway/train comprising a plurality of access points along the railway defining respective cells of the wireless communications network, where the access points are connected via an aggregation network to at least one gateway, wherein any of the access points are equipped with radio interface means supporting inter-communication between neighbor/adjacent access points and communication to network units within its cell, a first part of the access points being connected to a network gateway of the at least one gateway via the aggregation network directly, a second part of the access points being indirectly connected to the network gateway via inter-communication over at least one access point of the second part of the access points to an access point of the first part of access points, and wherein the broadband wireless access network comprises control means for routing the communication between the access points and the at least one gateway for a roaming network unit.
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Abstract
The invention relates to a cellular broadband wireless access network for a railway/train comprising a plurality of access points (AP1′, . . . , AP5′) along the railway defining respective cells (CO1, . . . , CO5) of the wireless communications network, where the access points (AP1′, . . . , AP5′) are connected to at least one network gateway (GW) via an aggregation network, and where an access point (AP1′, . . . , AP5′) is equipped with radio interface means supporting inter-communication between neighbor/adjacent access points and communication to network units within its cell, a first part of the access points (AP3′) being connected to a network gateway (GW) via the aggregation network directly, a second part of the access points (AP1′, AP2′, AP4′, AP5′) being indirectly connected to a network gateway via inter-communication over at least one other access point to an access point of the first part of access points (AP3′), and where the broadband wireless access network comprises control means for routing the communication between the access points (AP1′, . . . , AP5′) and the at least one gateway (GW) for a roaming network unit. The present invention further relates to a method, a computer software product and an access point (AP1′, . . . , AP5′) therefor.
72 Citations
11 Claims
- 1. A cellular broadband wireless access network for a railway/train comprising a plurality of access points along the railway defining respective cells of the wireless communications network, where the access points are connected via an aggregation network to at least one gateway, wherein any of the access points are equipped with radio interface means supporting inter-communication between neighbor/adjacent access points and communication to network units within its cell, a first part of the access points being connected to a network gateway of the at least one gateway via the aggregation network directly, a second part of the access points being indirectly connected to the network gateway via inter-communication over at least one access point of the second part of the access points to an access point of the first part of access points, and wherein the broadband wireless access network comprises control means for routing the communication between the access points and the at least one gateway for a roaming network unit.
- 6. An access point for use in a cellular broadband wireless access network for a railway/train, the wireless access network comprising a plurality of access points along the railway defining respective cells of the wireless communications network, wherein the access point is equipped with radio interface means supporting intercommunication between neighbor/adjacent access points and communication to roaming network units within its cell, the access point comprising switching means, first radio interface means integral to the switching means for supporting communications between the access point and a roaming network unit, and second radio interface means integral to the switching means for providing an inter-communication between neighbor/adjacent access points.
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9. A method for controlling a cellular broadband wireless access network comprising at least one gateway connected via an aggregation network to access points, the method comprising the steps of
determining for a roaming network unit at least one access point such that the roaming network unit is located in the cell of the at least one access point, and routing communication between a gateway and the roaming network unit via the at least one access point over the aggregation network, wherein only a first part of the access points are connected to a network gateway via the aggregation network directly, and a second part of the access points are indirectly connected to the network gateway via inter-communication over at least one other access point to an access point of the first part of access points, the method comprising further the steps of determining an access point of the first part of the access points, and routing communication between a gateway and the roaming unit via inter-communication over said access point.
Specification