Communication system between a vehicle network and a wayside network

• US 20090063700A1
• Filed: 05/03/2006
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Mobility SAS (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Information Systems Limited (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Rivoalen, Mathieu, Loudhaief, Wissam, De Lajudie, Raphaelle, Renard, Nicolas
• Granted Patent: US 8,161,186 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 2205/02 Global system for mobile communication - railways [GSM-R]
• CPC Class Codes: B61L 27/70 Details of trackside communication

Abstract

A system for communications between a vehicle network and a wayside network includes a router in the vehicle network configured to manage routing of data over one of at least two clients, and a radio-frequency based communication network for providing a connection between each client and an access point linked to the wayside network. Monitoring means in a vehicle of the vehicle network are configured to control a quality of the connection in order to configure the router so that one of the clients is selected for the data routing between the vehicle and the wayside network.

Claims

1. A system for communications between a vehicle network provided on a vehicle and a wayside network, comprising:

a router in said vehicle network configured to manage routing of data over one of at least two clients, of said vehicle network;

a radio-frequency based communication network for providing a connection between each client and an access point of said wayside network; and

monitoring means arranged in said vehicle and configured to control a quality of said connection in order to configure the router so that one of the client is selected for said data routing between the vehicle and said wayside network.

2. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein

the system includes two clients and both clients are disposed at opposite ends of the vehicle.

3. The communication system according to claim 2, wherein

said vehicle is a train with coupled train units, and

the router of a train unit manages data routing over one client among all train units.

4. The communication system according to claim 3, wherein

all train units are identical.

5. The communication system according to claim 2, wherein

radio-frequency based connections of both clients are performed over distinctive access points that belong to different clusters which are connected to the wayside network.

6. The communication system according to claim 5, wherein

said access points are spatially arranged in a such way that a radio-frequency communication between both clients and the wayside network is permanently enabled over a single or two different clusters.

7. The communication system according to claim 6, wherein

the clusters are connected to a main wayside router of the wayside network over a cluster router and wherein a data re-routing from a client linked to a first cluster to a new selected client linked to a second cluster is provided by switching the cluster routers.

8. The communication system according to claim 7, wherein

said data re-routing between a new selected client and the main wayside router over different wayside clusters which are linked to different wayside subnets is performed by the main wayside router such that data are switched in real-time to the corresponding selected access point over the cluster router comprising the selected access point.

9. The communication system according to claim 7, wherein

the main wayside router comprises a routing address of the vehicle over the access point the selected client is associated to and the corresponding cluster router.

10. The communication system according to claim 9, wherein

the cluster routers and the access points and their clients belong to a single WLAN-based network even if the wayside network is composed of several subnets.

11. The communication system according to claim 8, wherein

the router manages the data routing by means of a data table with a first client identifier, a corresponding radio-frequency quality and a second access point identifier linked to the wayside network over an attached cluster router,

by change of the data table content said new content is transmitted to the main wayside router over the selected client, then its associated access point and the attached cluster router.

12. The communication system according to claim 11, wherein

the data table contains one of a further vehicle identifier and, in case of coupled train units, a train identifier.

13. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein

all clients support a broadband data transfer.

14. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein

at least one of the clients comprises at least one of an acquisition device and a rendering device for real-time data.