Patent Description:
The current invention relates to wireless communication in the context of industrial automation. As mentioned above, due to the critical nature of industrial applications, high availability and reliability are required. This is particularly the case in relation to vehicles and other such mobile equipment used in the context of industrial automation. However, this is particularly challenging in the context of trains and other such long distance transportation.

For example, onboard coverage for industrial and passenger equipment aboard in trains is difficult as coverage of mobile operator networks is not always optimized for the train tracks. Conventionally, train network infrastructure include cellular routers which connect to the mobile operator network, which are connected local WLAN equipment which provide indoor coverage to the industrial and passenger equipment by means of WLAN. Although the cellular routers can have multiple SIMs to connect to several operators and choose the best among them, this solution will not necessarily deliver a good and reliable service since the coverage of the mobile operator network is often poor, since they often share the same antenna site resulting in no real difference amongst the different mobile operators. Most rail tracks are in rural areas where the coverage is achieved with <NUM> networks which do not have sufficient data rate. Moreover, the propagation conditions can be hostile due to the landscape, mountains, train speed and indoor propagation inside the train. Because of this, industrial and passenger equipment often suffer from loss of coverage and poor service quality. To address these issues, the current disclosure describes a network infrastructure which provides a dedicated <NUM> network for transmission of packets from the industrial and passenger equipment onboard the train.

Accordingly, the current disclosure describes a radio unit for providing network connectivity to one or more user equipment onboard a vehicle. The radio unit is located on the vehicle. The radio unit comprises a first network interface connectable to the one or more user equipment onboard the vehicle; and a second network interface connectable to a first network slice via a wayside network. The first network slice is connected to a home network associated with at least one user equipment from the one or more user equipment. The first network slice is configured to transport one or more traffic streams comprising one or more packets, associated with the at least one user equipment. The second network interface is connectable to the first network slice over a user plane function of a second network slice and wherein the first network slice includes a first network function for mapping one or more protocols of the first network slice and the one or more protocols of the second network slice.

Accordingly, the current disclosure describes a radio unit which is configured to provide connectivity to the industrial and passenger equipment onboard the train using dedicated <NUM> network slices and a wayside network. By using dedicated network slices, the current disclosure ensures that the equipment onboard the vehicle due no suffer from poor coverage as the wayside network and the dedicated network slices offer optimal coverage throughout the route of the vehicle. Moreover, by using two dedicated network slices: a first slice for communication with the home network and a second slice for intra network communication, the current disclosure ensures that communication reliability and low latency for the user equipment onboard the train.

In an example, the first network slice includes a roaming function for exchanging user information associated the at least one user equipment with the home network. Accordingly, using the above mentioned roaming function, the current disclosure is able to offer inbound roaming services to customers of mobile network operators. Both roaming approaches are supported: local break out (LBO) and home routed (HR). In an example, the at least one user equipment is registered with a subscriber server of the home network.

In an example, the second network slice includes a second network function for providing one or more services to the at least one user equipment, wherein the one or more services are associated with the vehicle. Accordingly, the current disclosure may provide specific vehicular services to the devices onboard. For example, the specific services may include ticketing services, localization services, etc. In an example, the radio unit is connected to the first network slice via a distributed unit located onboard the vehicle. It may be noted that in addition to the distributed unit, additional network equipment may also be present on the vehicle. For example, a distributed base station (gNB) may also be located on vehicle. Accordingly, additional network infrastructure accordingly may be located or installed on the vehicle to reduce network communication related delays.

In an example, the vehicle is one of a train, an automated guidance vehicle and a mining cart. Accordingly, the disclosure may be used in a plurality of industrial environments to facilitate communication.

In another aspect, the current disclosure describes a method of transmitting packets from a user equipment onboard a vehicle to a home network associated with the user equipment. The method comprises receiving one or more packets from the user equipment, wherein at least one packet from the one or more packets includes subscriber information associated with the user equipment, and transmitting the packet to a user plane function associated with a first network slice via a wayside network over a second user plane function associated with a second network slice. The first network slice is connected to the home network associated with the user equipment and wherein the first network slice includes a first network function for mapping one or more protocols of the first network slice and the one or more protocols of the second network slice.

In an example, the method further comprises encapsulating the one or more packets in a first format associated with the second user plane function associated with the second network slice. In an example, the first network function is configured to decapsulate the one or more packets from the first format associated with the second user plane function associated with the second network slice.

In another aspect, the current disclosure a non transitory storage medium for transmitting packets from a user equipment onboard a vehicle to a home network associated with the user equipment, the non transitory storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions, which when executed on one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to receive one or more packets from the user equipment, wherein at least one packet from the one or more packets includes subscriber information associated with the user equipment, and transmit the one or more packets to a user plane function associated with a first network slice via a wayside network over a second user plane function associated with a second network slice, wherein the first network slice is connected to the home network associated with the user equipment and wherein the first network slice includes a first network function for mapping one or more protocols of the first network slice and the one or more protocols of the second network slice. The advantages of the device apply to the method and the non transitory storage medium. These aspects are further explained in reference to <FIG>.

<FIG> illustrates a dedicated wireless network <NUM> for communication onboard a vehicle <NUM> in an industrial environment. Industrial environment herein refers to any environment where one or more industrial processes such as manufacturing, refining, smelting, assembly of equipment may take place and includes process plants, oil refineries, automobile factories, electrical power plants, transportation infrastructure such as railways, ships, etc. The vehicle may comprise a plurality of control devices connected to a plurality of field devices for monitoring and regulating one or more processes on the vehicle <NUM>. Vehicle herein refers to any machine capable of transporting material or personnel from one location to another. Example of vehicles include automated guidance vehicles, mining carts, trains, automobiles, etc..

The dedicated wireless network <NUM> includes one or more network devices installed onboard the vehicle <NUM>, for example radio unit <NUM> and one or more access points <NUM> and <NUM> as shown in <FIG>. The one or more network devices onboard the vehicle <NUM> are connected to the network core <NUM> via a wayside network <NUM>. In an example, the one or more network devices onboard the vehicle <NUM> includes a distributed unit (not shown in the figure). The radio unit <NUM> is connected to the distributed unit which in tun is connected to a network core <NUM>. Other radio units may also be present onboard the vehicle <NUM> along with the radio unit <NUM>.

The wayside network <NUM> includes a plurality of network infrastructure devices <NUM> and <NUM>, and includes, for example, radio units, distributed units, central units, etc. As mentioned previously, the wayside network <NUM> is connected to the network core <NUM>. The central units process non-real time protocols and services. The distributed units process physical level protocols and latency-critical real time services. The radio units carry out link layer and physical layer signal processing when transmitting and receiving radio signals. A plurality of well known protocols (such as eCPRI) may be used for communication amongst these components.

The dedicated wireless network <NUM> includes a network core <NUM> for managing and operating the dedicated wireless network <NUM>. The network core <NUM> includes two network slices: a first network slice <NUM> (also referred to as onboard slice <NUM>) and a second network slice <NUM> (also referred to as the main slice <NUM>). The first network slice <NUM> handles communication between the user equipment and external networks such as the home network associated with at least one user equipment. The first network slice <NUM> includes a plurality of network functions for handling and managing the communication associated with the user equipment. The plurality of the network functions of the first network slice <NUM> include a user plane function <NUM> which serves as the network plane over which connection between the external networks and the user equipment is established and packets are transported between the user equipment and the external networks.

The second network slice <NUM> manages and handles the wayside network and the communication occurring over the wayside network. The second network slice <NUM> includes a plurality of network functions. The wayside network and the second network slice are responsible for transporting packets associated with the first network slice <NUM>. The wayside network and second network slice act as a dedicated tunnel between the user equipment on the vehicle and the first network slice which allows for transportation of packets associated with the first network slice over the user plane of the second network slice. These aspects are further explained in reference to <FIG>.

<FIG> illustrates a method <NUM> of transmitting packets from a user equipment onboard a vehicle to a home network associated with the user equipment. In an example, the method <NUM> is performed by the radio unit <NUM> onboard the vehicle <NUM>. The radio unit <NUM> includes a first network interface connectable to the one or more user equipment <NUM> onboard the vehicle <NUM> and a second network interface connectable to the first network slice <NUM> via the wayside network <NUM>.

At step <NUM>, the radio unit <NUM> receives one or more packets from the user equipment <NUM> via the first network interface. The one or more packets includes at least one packet includes subscriber information associated with the user equipment <NUM>. In an example, the radio unit <NUM> receives the packets from the user equipment via an access point onboard the vehicle <NUM>. The user equipment <NUM> connects to the access point over a local subnetwork comprising a plurality of access points and is limited to the vehicle <NUM>. Subscriber information includes roaming information, network services enabled, billing information etc..

Then, at step <NUM>, the radio unit <NUM> transmits the one or more packets to the user plane function <NUM> associated with the first network slice <NUM> via the wayside network <NUM> over the second user plane function <NUM> associated with a second network slice <NUM>. In order to transport the one or more packets over the second user plane function <NUM>, the radio unit <NUM> and the first user plane function <NUM> include fronthaul map functions for mapping or translating / wrapping the one or more packets in the fronthaul protocols associated with the second network slice <NUM>. For example, the first user plane function <NUM> includes a fronthaul map function <NUM> which is responsible for mapping wrapping and unwrapping protocols into/out of the fronthaul protocols associated with the second network slice <NUM>. A similar fronthaul map function is implemented in the radio unit <NUM> onboard the vehicle <NUM>. The fronthaul map function on the radio unit is for wrapping the packets from the user equipment and for unwrapping the packets received from the external networks via the first network slice <NUM>.

For example, different fronthaul protocols can be used between the radio units and the distributed units of the first and second network slices, depending on the split option used. Since the packets are transported to the fist network slice via the second network slice, the fronthaul (FH) protocols of the first network slice are wrapped in the protocols of the second network slice. The fronthaul protocol mapping from one slice to the other is performed by two or more fronthaul map functions. The fronthaul map functions manage the translation of the flow of information between the two slices. In an example, the fronthaul map functions are responsible for requesting the correct QoS from the main slice for transportation of packets between the first user plane function and the onboard radio unit and map the fronthaul protocols of the first network slice onto the fronthaul protocols of the second network slice including the those associated with the user and control plane of the second network slice. For example, if the eCPRI protocol based packets have to be transported, then the fronthaul map function reads the appropriate field in the protocols of the packets associated with QoS and map the information onto a <NUM> QoS flow associated with the second network slice which can guarantee that level of QoS.

As an example, when a split <NUM>. <NUM> is implemented on the first network slice and eCPRI protocol is implemented between the radio unit and the distributed unit of the first network slice. Accordingly, eCPRI protocol of first network slice can be transported by the second network slice either over IP or over Ethernet. Accordingly, the fronthaul map functions in the first network slice (i.e. the onboard radio unit and the first user plane function) act as interworking function performing the mapping depending according to the protocol used between the first and second network slices. As mentioned previously, in case of Ethernet based connection, the Fronthaul map functions hold a mapping of the MAC address of the RU with IP address of the UE to which is connected and encapsulate the Ethernet frame into an IP packet to be routed to the RU behind the UE. Then, the IP packet is routed to the user plane function of the second network slice. At the UE the IP packet is routed to the destination RU which has a FH-Map function. This will extract the Ethernet frame and delivers to the Physical Layer elements. In case an IP transport mechanism is used between the DU and the RU, the FH-MAP at the DU forwards the IP packet to the UPF which has the capabilities to route the packet to right onboard UE. At the UE the packet will be further routed to the destination RU.

Accordingly, the packets are transmitted to the first network slice via the radio unit <NUM>. As mentioned previously, the first network slice <NUM> is connected to the home network <NUM> associated with the user equipment <NUM>. Accordingly, the first network slice <NUM> is determined configured to transmit the packets to the corresponding home network <NUM>. Accordingly, network connectivity is provided between the user equipment and the home network using the first and second network slices.

In an embodiment, the first network slice <NUM> additionally includes a roaming function for exchanging user information associated the at least one user equipment <NUM> with the home network <NUM>. Accordingly, using the roaming function, the first network slice <NUM> is configured to act as a visiting network for the user equipment and accordingly, fetch necessary information associated with the user equipment from the home network based on the subscriber information. Accordingly, using the above mentioned roaming function, the current disclosure is able to offer inbound roaming services to customers of mobile network operators. Both roaming approaches are supported: local break out (LBO) and home routed (HR). In an example, the at least one user equipment is registered with a subscriber server of the home network.

In an embodiment, the second network slice <NUM> includes a second network function for providing one or more services to the at least one user equipment <NUM>, wherein the one or more services are associated with the vehicle <NUM>. Accordingly, the current disclosure may provide specific vehicular services to the devices onboard. For example, the specific services may include ticketing services, localization services, etc. The onboard core network includes also a local platform for specific onboard services. Once the users are on boarded and registered on the train network they can use such services via an application on their smartphones. As an example, the onboard network as includes a location manager, the user can ask via the application an help function to localize their seat and the nearest free baggage space. The user is localized by the onboard <NUM> network and their position is shown on a train seating plan along with the position of the baggage space. The baggage space has sensors indicating the occupancy of such spaces, the application will then indicate the location of the nearest baggage space with live space availability.

Through a similar APP the user can get information about the journey, the position of the train, the weather on the destination and additional services, like booking a taxi on arrival or purchasing a local bus or underground ticket.

In an embodiment, the second network slice is configured to provide one or more train control related services. For example, the second network slice delivers services, for example control, signaling, diagnostic, services to one or more train control equipment in addition to transporting the packets associated with the first network slice. Additionally, it may be noted that the fronthaul map functions may be realized on second network slice instead of the first network slice and the radio unit aboard.

In an example, the radio unit is connected to the first network slice via a distributed unit located onboard the vehicle. Accordingly, additional network infrastructure accordingly may be located or installed on the vehicle to reduce network communication related delays.

The present disclosure can take a form of a computer program product comprising program modules accessible from computer-usable or computer-readable medium storing program code for use by or in connection with one or more computers, processing units, or instruction execution system. For example, the radio unit or the user plane functions may be realized across one or more devices. For example, accordingly, the current disclosure as describes a radio unit device <NUM>. The device <NUM> implements the method <NUM>. The device <NUM> includes one or more network interfaces (<NUM>, <NUM>), one or more processors <NUM> and a non-transitory storage medium <NUM>. The non-transitory storage medium <NUM> contains a plurality of instructions for implementing the method <NUM>. The plurality of instructions, which when executed on one or more processors <NUM>, cause the one or more processors <NUM> to receive one or more packets from the user equipment <NUM>, wherein at least one packet from the one or more packets includes subscriber information associated with the user equipment <NUM>, and transmit the one or more packets to a user plane function <NUM> associated with a first network slice <NUM> via a wayside network <NUM> over a second user plane function <NUM> associated with a second network slice <NUM>, wherein the first network slice <NUM> is connected to the home network <NUM> associated with the user equipment <NUM> and wherein the first network slice <NUM> includes a first network function <NUM> for mapping one or more protocols of the first network slice <NUM> and the one or more protocols of the second network slice <NUM>.

For the purpose of this description, a computer-usable or computer-readable non-transitory storage medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation mediums in and of themselves as signal carriers are not included in the definition of physical computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and optical disk such as compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk read/write, and DVD. Both processing units and program code for implementing each aspect of the technology can be centralized or distributed (or a combination thereof) as known to those skilled in the art.

Claim 1:
A radio unit (<NUM>) for providing network connectivity to one or more user equipment (<NUM>) onboard a vehicle (<NUM>), wherein the radio unit (<NUM>) is located on the vehicle (<NUM>), the radio unit (<NUM>) comprising:
a. a first network interface connectable to the one or more user equipment (<NUM>) onboard the vehicle (<NUM>); and
b. a second network interface connectable to a first network slice (<NUM>) via a wayside network (<NUM>), wherein the first network slice (<NUM>) is connected to a home network (<NUM>) associated with at least one user equipment (<NUM>) from the one or more user equipment (<NUM>) and wherein the first network slice (<NUM>) is configured to transport one or more traffic streams comprising one or more packets, associated with the at least one user equipment (<NUM>), wherein at least one packet from the one or more packets includes subscriber information associated with the user equipment (<NUM>);
wherein the second network interface is connectable to the first network slice (<NUM>) over a user plane function (<NUM>) of a second network slice (<NUM>) and wherein the first network slice (<NUM>) includes a first network function (<NUM>) for mapping one or more protocols of the first network slice (<NUM>) and one or more protocols of the second network slice (<NUM>) .