Patent ID: 8655515

Claim:
A communication system comprising: plural 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 network data from an off-board device; routing modules configured to be communicatively coupled with the antenna modules and configured to receive the different subsets of the network data from the respective antenna modules, the routing modules configured to be communicatively coupled with a network connection extending along the rail vehicle consist; and an arbitration module configured to be communicatively coupled with the network connection, the arbitration module configured to form a message represented by the network data and communicate the message to one or more of the powered units of the rail vehicle consist through the network connection, wherein one or more of the routing modules are configured to communicate the different subsets of the network data received from the off-board device to the arbitration module over the network connection, and the arbitration module is configured to receive and reconstitute the subsets of the network data to form the message to be communicated to the one or more powered units.