Wireless communication for vehicle based node

Abstract

A communication system for supporting communication for a vehicle (103) includes a plurality of fixed network segments. Communication from access points (109) to wireless modems (111) uses mm wave radio communication links. The fixed network and vehicle comprise segment multipath controllers (1007, 1101) coupled to the wireless modems or access points (109) for multipath communication with each other. Different segments have different segment multipath controllers (1007). Root multipath controllers (1103) are included having multipath connections coupled to the plurality of segment multipath controllers (1101) and being arranged to perform multipath communication with a complementary root multipath controller (1009) of the fixed network (107). The hierarchical multipath controller approach may provide efficient adaptation to network configuration changes caused by vehicle movement.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The invention relates to support of communication with a vehicle-based node, and in particular, but not exclusively, to wireless communication for a node on a train.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Wireless communication has become ubiquitous and forms the basis of many applications and services provided to the consumer of today. A particularly widespread set of wireless communication systems, colloquially known as Wi-Fi, has been developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance and is standardized in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) 802.11 standards. Wi-Fi wireless communication systems are typically used to implement Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) in many different environments, such as in homes, workplaces, or public areas.[0003]Wi-Fi systems provide many functions, features and services suitable for efficient implementation of WLANs and data communication. The IEEE 802.11 standards have been, and are being, developed to provide an in...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]The invention may provide improved and / or facilitated operation and / or improved performance for a beamform based mm wave radio communication system supporting (potentially fast) moving vehicles and employing a segmented fixed network. The approach may in particular provide efficient and reliable communication.

[0017]The approach may provide improved consistency and reduced data interruption and / or performance degradation, due to handovers between different parts of the fixed network.

[0018]The approach may allow an efficient, high performance, and quick adaptation to changes in access points and network segments supporting communication for the vehicle.

[0019]The use of beams from directional antennas may specifically support radio communication links from different wireless modems of the vehicle to the same access point or to different access points. It may allow steering of the beams towards the same or different access points thereby enabling or improving multiple links between the vehicle and access points. This may provide improved performance.

[0038]According to an optional feature of the invention, latency for communication within each network segment of the plurality of network segments is lower than latency for communication between network segments of the plurality of network segments.

Problems solved by technology

A particularly difficult challenge for a communication infrastructure is to support mobility.

In particular, it is difficult to provide high data rate support for fast moving vehicles, for example in order to support high capacity Internet access on board trains.

However, the handovers and general mobility support tend to be relatively slow (with an interruption in data connectivity) and relatively complex and tend to not be suitable for faster moving mobile stations, such as fast-moving vehicles.

Traditional Wi-Fi access points also tend to be limited to a relatively low capacity / throughput.

However, such systems tend to have large cells and to be restricted to much lower capacity and throughput speed than desired.

A general problem is that in order to support high capacity communication with, in particular, a fast-moving vehicle, a significant amount of air interface resource (spectrum) is required, and this tends to restrict the capacity that can be provided by many existing systems in the most frequently used frequency ranges.

However, the mobility challenges known from e.g. Wi-Fi systems become even more significant.

For a fast-moving vehicle this results in an increased number of handovers and in continuously fast changing conditions.

Whilst some direction changes can be accommodated by steering the antennae of the radio communication link, there is not the omnidirectional capability of typical cellular and Wi-Fi radios.

In general, the efficient usage of air interface in mm wave communication and with potentially fast-moving vehicles is a difficult challenge.

A particular challenge is how to handle handovers in terms of updating the network operation and data routing as air interface links change.

The issue is further complicated by the fixed network supporting vehicle-based communication in many situations being segmented into separate network segments covering different areas.

This significantly complicates routing, control, adaptation, and network management in order to efficiently support vehicle-based communication.

Conventional approaches tend to result in inefficient and / or unreliable communication.

In particular, data interruptions, reduced data rates, increased data loss, etc. are often encountered.

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