Patent ID: 11888211
Assignee: WESTINGHOUSE AIR BRAKE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Field: Telecommunications (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 17:
18. An assembly comprising:
a housing configured to be mounted on a vehicle;
a mast mechanically coupled to the housing and configured to extend and retract relative to the housing;
an antenna mechanically coupled to and supported by the mast; and
one or more processors operably coupled to the mast, the one or more processors configured to generate a first control signal to raise the mast and increase a distance that the antenna extends from the housing in response to determining occurrence of a designated raise event, the one or more processors configured to generate a second control signal to lower the mast and reduce the distance that the antenna extends from the housing in response to determining occurrence of a designated lower event,
wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the occurrence of the designated raise event by one or more of:
detecting at least one of degraded communication quality or total communication loss between a communication device of the assembly and a second communication device disposed on another vehicle;
determining that the vehicle is approaching an upcoming segment of a route associated with degraded communication quality;
detecting initiation of a communication linking procedure between the communication device of the assembly and the second communication device disposed on the other vehicle;
detecting that the vehicle is in motion; or
detecting release of brakes of the vehicle.