Patent ID: 8655516

Claim:
A communication system comprising: antenna modules configured to be disposed at spaced apart locations along a rail vehicle consist having plural powered units, the antenna modules configured to receive respective different subsets of a trip profile from an off-board device, the trip profile related to at least one of tractive effort or braking effort supplied by one or more of the powered units of the rail vehicle consist; routing modules configured to be disposed on the powered units of the rail vehicle consist and configured to be communicatively coupled with the antenna modules, the routing modules configured to be communicatively coupled with a network connection extending between the powered units of the rail vehicle consist; and an arbitration module configured to be disposed on at least one of the powered units and configured to be communicatively coupled with the routing modules of the powered units by the network connection, wherein one or more of the routing modules are configured to communicate the different subsets of the trip profile received from the off-board device to the arbitration module, and the arbitration module is configured to receive and reconstitute the different subsets of the trip profile into a message to be communicated to a propulsion subsystem of one or more of the powered units.