Data distribution system and method for distributing data in a vehicle

• US 8,798,807 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2011
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Mudiam, Veni, Schroeck, David Joseph, DeSanzo, David Joseph, Urkavalan, Saravana Karthikeyan, Joseph, Matthew Paul, Agrawal, Saket
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW
• Application Number:
  US13/311,267
• Publication Number:
  US 20120316700A1
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/35, 701/36, 701/182, 701/183
• 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 including one or more processors, the data distributor module configured to be communicatively coupled with a first service module that includes one or more processors and provides one or more functions for the vehicle based on values of data parameters, the data distributor module configured to receive a first request list from the first service module that includes one or more requested data parameters, and

a plurality of data acquisition modules including one or more processors, the data acquisition modules communicatively coupled with the data distributor module, each of the data acquisition modules configured to obtain the values of different data parameters,

wherein the data distributor module is configured to determine which of the data acquisition modules obtain each of the requested data parameters and to send a filtered list to each data acquisition module that obtains at least one of the requested data parameters, the filtered list including the one or more data parameters that are obtained by the receiving data acquisition module,

wherein, in response to receiving the filtered list, each receiving data acquisition module is configured to obtain the values of the one or more requested data parameters included in the received filtered list and store the values in one or more shared memories, the data acquisition modules further configured to transmit one or more response lists to the data distributor module that indicate locations in the one or more shared memories where the values of the one or more requested parameters are stored,

wherein, in response to receiving the one or more response lists, the data distributor module is configured to retrieve the values of the one or more requested data parameters from the one or more shared memories based on the one or more response lists and transmit a message to the first service module that includes the values of the one or more data parameters requested by the first service module for the first service module to use the values to provide the one or more functions for the vehicle.

2. The data distribution system of claim 1, wherein the first 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 one or more response lists include a memory index and

the data distributor module is configured to retrieve the values from the one or more shared memories 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 requested data parameters that are obtained by a first data acquisition module and at least a different, second data acquisition module of the plurality of data acquisition modules;

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 or the second data acquisition module obtains the values of each of the requested data parameters.

5. The data distribution system of claim 4, wherein the data distributor module is configured to send the filtered list as a first filtered list to the first data acquisition module and the data distributor module is configured to send a different, second filtered list to the second data acquisition module, the first filtered list including the requested data parameters that are obtained by the first data acquisition module and the second filtered list including the requested data parameters that are obtained by the second data acquisition module.

6. 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 one or more shared memories and send the values that are retrieved to the first service module.

7. The data distribution system of claim 1, wherein the data distributor module is configured to receive 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

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

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

a data distributor module including one or more processors and a shared memory having a tangible and non-transitory computer readable storage medium, 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 that each includes one or more processors, the data parameters relation to operations of the vehicle and the service modules configured to perform one or more functions for the vehicle based on values of the data parameters, the data distributor module configured to filter the requests for the data parameters, and communicate the filtered requests for the data parameters to a plurality of data acquisition modules that each includes one or more processors, the data distributor module filtering the requests for the data parameters and communicating the filtered requests based on which of the data acquisition modules obtain each of the data parameters, each data acquisition module that receives a filtered request configured to obtain the values of the data parameters according to the corresponding filtered request and store the values of the data parameters in the shared memory;

wherein the data distributor module is further configured to at least one of;

retrieve the values of the data parameters from the shared memory based on memory indices of the stored data parameters received from one or more of the data acquisition modules after the one or more data acquisition modules store the values of the data parameters in the shared memory, the memory indices indicating locations in the shared memory where the values of the data parameters are stored, and the data distributor module configured to communicate the values of 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 providing the one or more functions for the vehicle;

or

communicate the memory indices that are received from the one or more data acquisition modules to the plurality of service modules for the service modules to retrieve the values of the stored data parameters from the shared memory based on the memory indices for use by the plurality of service modules in performing the on more functions for the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 8. wherein the data distributor module is configured to communicate at least one of the values of the data parameters or the memory indices to the plurality of service modules at one or more rates as requested by the service modules.

10. 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 requested data parameters related to operations of the vehicle and used to perform one or more functions for the vehicle;

determining which of one or more data acquisition modules that each includes one or more processors acquires the values of each of the one or more requested data parameters and forming one or more filtered lists that associates each of the one or more requested data parameters with the data acquisition module that acquires the values of the respective data parameter;

sending the one or more filtered lists to the one or more data acquisition modules for the one or more data acquisition modules that receive the one or more filtered lists to acquire the values of the data parameters in the received filtered list and store the values in a memory having a tangible and non-transitory computer readable storage medium; and

in response to receiving one or more response lists from the one or more data acquisition modules that indicate locations in the memory where the values of the one or more requested data parameters are stored, retrieving the values from the locations in the memory based on the one or more response lists in order to transmit the values to one or more service modules that each includes one or more processors, the one or more service modules configured to use the values to perform the one or more functions for the vehicle.

11. The method of claim 10, 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.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more response lists from the one or more data acquisition modules include memory indices and the retrieving step includes reading the values from the memory according to the memory indices.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more data acquisition modules include at least two data acquisition modules, 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 at least two 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 different ones of the at least two data acquisition modules provide the values of the requested data parameters.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the sending step includes sending the requested data parameters that are filtered to one or more of the different ones of the data acquisition modules based on which of the data acquisition modules acquires the values of the requested data parameters.

15. The method of claim 10, 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.

16. The method of claim 10, 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 one or more service modules in response to the asynchronous notification.

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

receiving requests for data parameters from a plurality of service modules that each includes one or more processors, the data parameters relating to operations of the vehicle and the service modules configured to perform one or more functions for the vehicle based on values of the data parameters;

filtering the requests for the data parameters based on which of a plurality of data acquisition modules obtain each of the data parameters that are in the requests, the data acquisition modules each including one or more processors;

communicating the requests that are filtered as filtered lists to one or more of the data acquisition modules, the one or more data acquisition modules that receive one of the filtered lists obtain the values of the data parameters in the respective filtered list responsive to receiving the filtered list and store the values of the data parameters in a shared memory with memory indices representative of where the values are stored; and

in response to receiving the memory indices from the one or more data acquisition modules, at least one of;

retrieving the values of the data parameters from the shared memory based on the memory indices, and communicating the values of 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 the 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 values of the stored data parameters from the shared memory based on the memory indices.

18. 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 relating to operations of the vehicle, the service modules each include one or more processors and are configured to provide one or more functions for the vehicle based on values of the data parameters;

a filter submodule configured to filter the requests based on which of plural data acquisition modules of the vehicle acquire the values of each of the data parameters in the requests, form filtered lists that each include the requested data parameters that are acquired by a different one of the data acquisition modules, and transmit the filtered lists to the corresponding data acquisition modules for each of the data acquisition modules that receives one of the filtered lists to acquire the values of the data parameters on the respective received filtered list and store the acquired values in a shared memory having a tangible and non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the plural service modules and the plural data acquisition modules each including one or more processors;

a reader submodule configured to retrieve the values of the data parameters in the requests from the shared memory based on one or more response lists that are received by the reader submodule from the data acquisition modules that store the values of the data parameters in the shared memory, the one or more response lists indicating locations in the shared memory where the values of the data parameters are stored; 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, wherein the request list submodule, the filter submodule, the reader submodule, and the publication submodule at least one of each include one or more processors or are commonly grouped within one or more processors.

19. The data distribution system of claim 18, 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.

20. The data distribution system of claim 18, wherein the one or more response lists include one or more memory indices that indicate where the values of the data parameters are stored in the shared memory by the one or more data acquisition modules.

21. The data distribution system of claim 18, wherein the filter submodule is configured to transmit the filtered lists to one or more of the plural data acquisition modules based on which of the data acquisition modules obtains the values of the data parameters in each of the filtered lists.