Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US6867708?dq=5754119
Timestamp: 2013-12-18 23:39:10
Document Index: 489574734

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60']

Patent US6867708 - Communications system and method for interconnected networks having a linear ... - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inAdvanced Patent SearchPatentsA system and method for communicating over networks, particularly generally-linear networks such as a netowrk of railcars in a railway train. The disclosed system and method include the relaying of packets which may contain plural messages down a line of nodes. Acknowledgement of the packets is obtained...http://www.google.com/patents/US6867708?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6867708 - Communications system and method for interconnected networks having a linear topology, especially railwaysAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS6867708 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/942,624Publication dateMar 15, 2005Filing dateAug 31, 2001Priority dateMar 17, 1997Fee statusLapsedAlso published asCA2283695A1, CA2283695C, DE69839628D1, EP1008254A2, EP1008254A4, EP1008254B1, US6400281, US20020027495, WO1998042096A2, WO1998042096A3Publication number09942624, 942624, US 6867708 B2, US 6867708B2, US-B2-6867708, US6867708 B2, US6867708B2InventorsAlbert Donald Darby, Jr., David Poltz, Mark Hefner, Irfan Ali, William Schoonmaker, George JarmanOriginal AssigneeAlbert Donald Darby, Jr., David Poltz, Mark Hefner, Irfan Ali, William Schoonmaker, George JarmanExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (36), Referenced by (10), Classifications (58), Legal Events (3) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetCommunications system and method for interconnected networks having a linear topology, especially railwaysUS 6867708 B2Abstract A system and method for communicating over networks, particularly generally-linear networks such as a netowrk of railcars in a railway train. The disclosed system and method include the relaying of packets which may contain plural messages down a line of nodes. Acknowledgement of the packets is obtained implicitly by listening to a subsequenct relay of the packet and retransmission of the packet is effected on a diverse antenna in the event of non-acknowledgement. Message bandwidth is shared among the nodes of the system by a message priority system and by the reservation of portions of a packet for certain types of messages. Message bandwidth is also shared by the use of groups of nodes as relay particpiants and by periodically changing the group which is peforming the relay operations.
d. modifying the received pneumatic pulse at each railcar prior to retransmission of the pneumatic pulse to thereby facilitate the determination of the time receipt of the pulse at other railcars. 20. In a method of determining the relative position of plural railcars in a train having at least one head end unit (�LIEU�) where the HEU and all of the railcars are connected by pneumatic and wireless communication systems, the improvement wherein each railcar transmits a wireless signal upon receipt of a pneumatic signal and determines its relative position in the train from the difference in time between the receipt of a pneumatic signal originating from the HEU and the receipt of a wireless signal transmitted by the immediately preceding railcar.
22. In a method of determining the relative position of plural railcars in a train having at least one head end unit (�HEU�) where the HEU and all of the cars are connected by a common pneumatic communication system and where the HEU and each of the railcars is connected to a plurality of the railcars by a wireless communication system, the improvement wherein each railcar transmits a wireless signal upon receipt of a pneumatic signal and determines its relative position in the train using the time of receipt of the wireless signal received over the wireless communication system in closest proximity to receipt of a pneumatic signal.
RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a division of application Ser. No. 09/042,722, filed Mar. 17, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,281, which claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/040,585, filed Mar. 17, 1997, and claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/040,586, filed Mar. 17, 1997, and claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/044,333, filed Mar. 27,1997, and claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/043,753, filed Apr. 9, 1997, and claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/064,529 filed Nov. 5, 1997, and claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/066,304, filed Nov. 25, 1997.
With reference now to FIG. 1, the present invention may be used in a train 10, comprising a Head End Unit (�HEU�) 12, plural Rail Car Units (�RCU�) 14, and one or more Distributed Power Units (�DPU�) 16. The HEU may communicate with one or more of the RCUs through a radio link through antennas 18 associated with the HEU and with each of the RCUs with which communication is to be established. Similarly, the HEU 12 may communicate with each of the DPUs 16 and any other similar assets on the train through the antennas 18. As detailed below, the RCUs 14 may likewise communicate with the HEU 12, the DPU 16 and with other RCUs within the train 10. Throughout this description, the terms �radio link�, �RF communications� and similar terms are used to describe a method of communicating between two links in a network system. It should be understood that the linkage between nodes in a system in accordance with the present invention is not limited to radio or RF systems or the like and is meant to cover all means by which messages may be delivered from one node to another or to plural others, including without limitation, magnetic systems, acoustic systems, and optical systems. Likewise, the system of the present invention is described in connection with an embodiment in which radio (RF) links are used between nodes and in which the various components are compatible with such links; however, this description of the presently preferred embodiment is not intended to limit the invention to that particular embodiment.
With continued reference to FIG. 1, the HEU 12 may also communicate via a radio link with a Network Management site 20. Likewise, the Network management site 20 may communicate via a radio link with various Wayside Units (�WU�) 22 which are associated with the track on which the train 10 is to be run. The WUs control and/or communicate with various track resources, such as switches, train presence detectors, broken rail detectors, hot box detectors, signals, etc. conventionally used in railway systems. A WU may be a part of and control a single device, such as a switch, or may be a control processor which communicates with and controls several devices (generally located near each other) such as a switch, train detectors on the track segments associated with the switch and signal apparatus associated with the switch.
With reference now to FIG. 2 where like elements are provided with the same reference numeral as in FIG. 1, communications within a train 10 carrying out one embodiment of the present invention generally require a flow of messages to and from the various vehicles of the train. For example, train control at steady state will usually require a regular (repeated, periodic) communication from the HEU to all RCUs (�Status Poll�) Similarly, the communication should accommodate regular (repeated, periodic) checks of the brake supply pipe pressure at the end of the train (assuming that the bakes are pneumatic). The HEU should be able to direct communications to individual cars (�DP Command�), or alternatively, to all of the cars at once (�Brake Command�). The HEU should also be able to obtain information regarding the status (function, health, conditions, etc.) regarding all applications running on all of the cars. The HEU should be able to receive status messages from the RCUs (�Poll Response�) and from the End-Of-Train RCU (�Supply Pipe Status�). Finally, the HEU should be able to receive unsolicited messages from all of the RCUs. These unsolicited messages may be asynchronous to the normal message timing and generally convey unexpected events, such as a sudden loss of supply pipe pressure.
Any number of communications protocols could be used, with varying degrees of success, to pass messages from one car of a train to another. The selected protocol must be able to pass messages reliably within a train, be relatively free of interference from similar communications on other trains or from intruders, communicate messages within the time latency requirements for the systems being controlled (e.g., braking systems), and be able to handle different types of messages from different types of rail vehicles, all within an environment which changes as the train moves along the track and which may be filled with adverse environmental factors. Moreover, the selected protocol must address the inevitable equipment failure of various system components and be able to continue operation despite the absence of one or more nodes within the communications system. In one embodiment, the system and method of the present invention includes a communications protocol which satisfies these and many other constraints faced by a communications protocol on a moving train. With reference to FIG. 4, each of the rail vehicles of a train can be considered a node of a communications network. In the protocol used in this embodiment, one of the nodes is considered a pilot node and one of the nodes is considered a reversing node. Usually, the pilot node will be at the locomotive and the reversing node will be at the last functioning car in the train (the �End-of-Train� car) Each node is given a logical address corresponding to its position within the train (NODE 1, NODE 2 . . . NODE 9) starting with the pilot node. Each car in the network is also assigned (usually during linking) to a relay group, with the pilot node and the reversing node being assigned to all groups.
The reversing node has additional responsibilities than the intermediate nodes. Since there are no further nodes in the network, another relay is not needed to continue the packet toward the end of the train. However, unless the last relaying node is notified that the reversing node has received the packet, that relaying node will retransmit the packet. To prevent these unneeded transmission, the reversing node will transmit a �stoppers� packet which can be a short packet serving as an explicit acknowledgment that the last relayed packet has been received. The stopper packet may be a short packet which the reversing node addresses to itself, thus eliminating any further expectations of retransmission. In addition, the reversing node also serves to initiate an in-bound (moving toward to pilot node) packet. The inbound packet may contain a repeat of any messages from the outbound packet which were marked for �rebound�, messages from any applications operating at the reversing node, responses from the reversing node itself (brake pipe pressure, for example). The inbound packet is addressed to be carried by the same relay group that carried the messages on the outbound journey; the flag in the packet is set to designate that it is an inbound packet, the hop count is incremented and the packet is transmitted by the reversing node. The inbound packet sent by the reversing node will be sent for relay by the first node in the reverse relay group (this node may be, but is not necessarily, the same as the last node in the outbound relay group). With reference to FIG. 4, the reversing node sends the packet to the first Group II node on the reverse path, i.e., to NODE 7. The packet is thereafter relayed by each of the relay nodes in the same manner as was the outbound packet, described above. Similarly as for outbound packets, each relaying node sets a retransmission timer which will cause a retransmission of the packet if the node does not �hear� the further retransmission of the packet by the next relay node. When the packet arrives at the pilot node, the pilot node sends a stopper packet to expressly acknowledge receipt of the packet and to turn off the last relaying node's retransmission timer.
With continued reference to FIG. 5, the pilot node (Node 0) initiates the packet by generating the packet to include three messages: a status poll command for Node 3 (�STATUS POLL� in the message outline, a brake command (�BRAKE CMD�) for all nodes and a command to a distributed power unit at Node 5 (�DP COMMAND�) At about the same time, Mode 7 detects an alarm condition and generates an unsolicited message to be sent to the pilot node. Because the last outbound packet was sent through the first group of relay nodes, the pilot node addresses this message to be relayed by the second group of relay nodes (the �odd numbered� nodes) and addresses the packet appropriately in the header (�HDR�) and sets the hop count to one. The packet is then transmitted by the pilot node which also schedules a retransmission in case an acknowledgment is not received.
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CegliaRemote conference calling for wireless systemsUS5986579Jul 31, 1998Nov 16, 1999Westinghouse Air Brake CompanyMethod and apparatus for determining railcar order in a trainUS6114974Aug 25, 1999Sep 5, 2000Wabtec Railway ElectronicsMethod and apparatus for determining railcar order in a train* Cited by examinerReferenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS7149962 *Mar 1, 2002Dec 12, 2006General Electric Railcar Services CorporationSystem and method for providing a gauge tableUS7310688 *Aug 29, 2000Dec 18, 2007Ciena CorporationRelative addressing for network elementsUS7397771 *Mar 22, 2005Jul 8, 2008Fujitsu LimitedCommunication terminal and communication methodUS7484169 *Feb 15, 2006Jan 27, 2009General Electric CompanyImplicit message sequence numbering for locomotive remote control system wireless communicationsUS7707474 *Aug 1, 2005Apr 27, 2010Nokia CorporationOuter loop power control with transport block diversity transmissionUS8155809 *Mar 2, 2010Apr 10, 2012Bilodeau James RData logging, collection, and analysis techniquesUS8245983 *Jan 9, 2007Aug 21, 2012General Electric CompanySystem and method for railroad wayside monitoringUS20090079560 *Dec 27, 2007Mar 26, 2009General Electric CompanyRemotely monitoring railroad equipment using network protocolsUS20110286464 *Jan 20, 2010Nov 24, 2011Mitsubishi Electric CorporationTrain communication system and train communication methodWO2007103016A2 *Feb 23, 2007Sep 13, 2007L 3 Comm CorpSelf-assembling wireless network, vehicle communications system, railroad wheel and bearing monitoring system and methods therefor* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification340/933, 340/3.5, 340/505, 246/167.00R, 370/315International ClassificationB61L3/12, H04L1/18, H04L1/16, H04L12/403, H04L1/00, H04L12/56, B61L15/00Cooperative ClassificationH04L1/1887, H04W28/04, H04L1/188, H04L12/40163, H04L12/42, H04W88/04, H04L12/40182, H04L1/16, H04L2012/40293, H04L1/1803, H04L45/20, B61L25/023, H04L1/1657, B61L27/0038, B61L3/125, B61L15/0027, H04L12/403, B61L25/025, B61L15/0081, H04L2001/0092, H04W40/22, B61L25/021, H04W28/26, H04W40/06, H04W84/005, H04L45/00, B61L27/0077, H04W40/02European ClassificationB61L27/00C, H04L12/40R1A, H04L45/00, H04L45/20, H04L1/16F11, H04L1/18T5, H04L1/18A, H04L1/16, H04L12/403, B61L25/02A, H04L12/42, H04L12/40P3, B61L15/00B1, B61L3/12B, B61L15/00H, B61L25/02B, B61L27/00G, B61L25/02CLegal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionMay 5, 2009FPExpired due to failure to pay maintenance feeEffective date: 20090315Mar 15, 2009LAPSLapse for failure to pay maintenance feesSep 22, 2008REMIMaintenance fee reminder mailedRotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services©2012 Google