DATA DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISTRIBUTING DATA IN A VEHICLE

• US 20120316700A1
• Filed: 12/05/2011
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Mudiam, Veni, DeSanzo, David Joseph, Schroeck, David, Urkavalan, Saravana Karthikeyan, Joseph, Matthew Paul, Agrawal, Saket
• Granted Patent: US 8,798,807 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• 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

Abstract

A data distribution system for a vehicle includes a data distributor module that is communicatively coupled with a data acquisition module that obtains values of available data parameters related to operation of the vehicle, a service module that provides functions for the vehicle based on the values, and a memory. The data distributor module receives a request list from the service module that includes one or more requested data parameters of the available data parameters. The data acquisition module stores the values of the requested data parameters in the memory. The data distributor module retrieves the values of one or more of the requested data parameters from the memory and communicates the values that are retrieved to the service module for the service module to use the values that are retrieved to provide the functions for the vehicle.

Claims

1. A data distribution system for a vehicle, the distribution system comprising:

a data distributor module configured to be communicatively coupled with a first data acquisition module that obtains values of one or more available data parameters related to operation of the vehicle, a first service module that provides one or more functions for the vehicle based on the values, and a memory, the data distributor module configured to receive a first request list from the first service module that includes one or more requested data parameters of the available data parameters;

wherein the data distributor module is configured for the first data acquisition module to store the values of the requested data parameters in the memory; and

wherein the data distributor module is configured to retrieve the values of one or more of the requested data parameters from the memory and communicate the values that are retrieved to the first service module for the first service module to use the values that are retrieved to provide the one or more functions for the vehicle.

2. The data distribution system of claim 1, wherein the service module is configured to use at least one of the values communicated from the data distributor module to control at least one of tractive effort or braking effort provided by the vehicle.

3. The data distribution system of claim 1, wherein the data distributor module is configured to receive a memory index from the first data acquisition module, the memory index indicating where the values of one or more of the requested data parameters are stored in the memory;

and

wherein the data distributor module is configured to retrieve the values from the memory according to the memory index.

4. The data distribution system of claim 1, wherein the data distributor module is configured to receive at least a second request list from at least a second service module, the first request list and the second request list including the requested data parameters provided by the first data acquisition module and at least a different, second data acquisition module;

and

wherein the data distributor module is configured to filter the requested data parameters in the first request list and the second request list according to which of the first data acquisition module and the second data acquisition module provide the values of the requested data parameters.

5. The data distribution system of claim 4, wherein the data distributor module is configured to send at least one third list of the requested data parameters that are filtered to the first data acquisition module and to the second data acquisition module based on which of the first data acquisition module and the second data acquisition module obtains the values of the requested data parameters.

6. The data distribution system of claim 1, wherein the data distributor module is configured to receive a response list from the first data acquisition module that indicates where the values of the requested data parameters are stored in the memory;

and

wherein the data distributor module is configured to retrieve the values of the requested data parameters based on the response list.

7. The data distribution system of claim 1, wherein the data distributor module is configured to periodically retrieve the values of the requested data parameters from the memory and send the values that are retrieved to the first service module.

8. The data distribution system of claim 1, wherein the data distributor module is configured to receive an asynchronous notification from the first data acquisition module when the value of one or more of the requested data parameters is at least one of available or updated;

and

the data distributor module is configured to, in response to the asynchronous notification, retrieve from the memory the value that is at least one of available or updated and send the value to the first service module.

9. A data distribution system for a vehicle, the distribution system comprising:

a data distributor module and a shared memory, the data distributor module communicatively coupled with the shared memory;

wherein the data distributor module is configured to receive requests for data parameters from a plurality of service modules, filter the requests for the data parameters, and communicate the filtered requests for the data parameters to a plurality of data acquisition modules that generate the data parameters and store the data parameters in the shared memory, and wherein the data parameters relate to operations of the vehicle;

wherein the data distributor module is further configured to at least one of retrieve the data parameters from the shared memory, based on memory indices of the stored data parameters received from the data acquisition modules, and communicate the data parameters that are retrieved from the shared memory to the plurality of service modules for use by the plurality of service modules in performing one or more functions for the vehicle;

or communicate the memory indices to the plurality of service modules for the service modules to retrieve the stored data parameters from the shared memory.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the data distributor module is configured to communicate the data parameters or the memory indices to the plurality of service modules at one or more rates as requested by the service modules.

11. A method for distributing data in a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving a first request list for values of one or more requested data parameters, the values representative of operations of the vehicle and used to perform one or more functions for the vehicle;

determining which of one or more data acquisition modules acquires the values of the one or more requested data parameters;

storing the values in a memory; and

retrieving the values from the memory in order to transmit the values to one or more service modules that use the values to perform the functions for the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising controlling at least one of tractive efforts or braking efforts of the vehicle based on the values that are retrieved from the memory.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving one or more memory indices from the one or more data acquisition modules, the memory indices indicating where the values of one or more of the requested data parameters are stored in the memory, wherein the retrieving step includes reading the values from the memory according to the memory index.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the receiving step includes receiving at least a second request list including one or more of the requested data parameters, the first request list and the second request list including the requested data parameters provided by different ones of the one or more data acquisition modules, further comprising filtering the requested data parameters in the first request list and the second request list according to which of the data acquisition modules provide the values of the requested data parameters.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising sending the requested data parameters that are filtered to each of the data acquisition modules based on which of the data acquisition modules obtains the values of the requested data parameters.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving a response list from one or more of the data acquisition modules that indicates where the values of the requested data parameters are stored in the memory, wherein the retrieving step includes reading the values of the requested data parameters based on the response list.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the retrieving step includes periodically retrieving the values of the requested data parameters and sending the values that are retrieved to the one or more service modules.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving an asynchronous notification from one or more of the data acquisition modules when the value of one or more of the requested data parameters is at least one of available or updated;

and

retrieving the value that is at least one of available or updated in order to transmit the value that is at least one of available or updated to the first service module in response to the asynchronous notification.

19. A method for distributing data in a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving requests for data parameters from a plurality of service modules, the data parameters relating to operations of the vehicle;

filtering the requests for the data parameters;

communicating the requests that are filtered for the data parameters to a plurality of data acquisition modules that generate the data parameters and store the data parameters in a shared memory with memory indices representative of where the data parameters are stored; and

at least one of;

retrieving the data parameters from the shared memory, based on memory indices of the data parameters that are stored in the shared memory and received from the data acquisition modules, and communicating the data parameters that are retrieved from the shared memory to the plurality of service modules for use by the plurality of service modules in performing one or more functions for the vehicle;

or

communicating the memory indices to the plurality of service modules for the service modules to retrieve the stored data parameters from the shared memory based on the memory indices.

21. The data distribution system of claim 19, wherein at least one of the service modules is configured to use one or more of the values communicated from the publication submodule to the at least one of the service modules to control at least one of tractive effort or braking effort provided by the vehicle.

22. The data distribution system of claim 19, wherein the reader submodule is configured to receive one or more memory indices from the one or more data acquisition modules, the memory indices indicating where the values of the data parameters are stored in the memory by the one or more data acquisition modules.

23. The data distribution system of claim 19, wherein the filter submodule is configured to send the data parameters of the requests that are filtered to each of the plural data acquisition modules based on which of the data acquisition modules obtains the values of the data parameters of the requests.

20. A data distribution system for a vehicle, the distribution system comprising:

a request list submodule configured to receive requests for values of one or more available data parameters from plural service modules of the vehicle, the data parameters representing operations of the vehicle;

a filter submodule configured to filter the requests based on which of plural data acquisition modules of the vehicle acquire the values of the data parameters in the requests, wherein one or more of the data acquisition modules store the values in a shared memory;

a reader submodule configured to retrieve the values of the data parameters in the requests from the shared memory; and

a publication submodule configured to form one or more messages for transmission to the service modules, wherein the one or more messages include the values of the data parameters that are requested by the service modules.