Train Control Wireless Redundancy via LTE-R Base Station Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless communication systems for train control face challenges in achieving stability and availability, particularly due to the inherent instability of wireless communication, which complicates ensuring safety and security in train operations and passenger safety, and existing redundancy structures have limitations in providing reliable communication redundancy.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a redundancy network using a commercial Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network in an LTE-R based train control wireless communication system, where control commands are duplicated and transmitted through different interfaces and core networks, with virtual private network (VPN) tunneling to ensure communication redundancy and security, and using base station sharing technology to maintain a closed network without linking to commercial Internet networks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If wireless communication is used for train control to reduce wayside infrastructures, then line capacity increases, but communication stability and availability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating distinct communication paths with different characteristics: a dedicated train control communication path for critical commands and a commercial mobile communication path for general data transmission. Each path is optimized for its specific function, with the dedicated path ensuring stability for safety-critical operations while the commercial path provides capacity for non-critical communications.
Solution Approach 2:
The communication system is segmented into multiple independent paths: a dedicated train control communication network and a commercial mobile communication network. This segmentation allows each path to operate independently, so that failures in the commercial network do not affect train control operations, while still providing redundancy and increased overall system capacity.
2Device complexity
If a single wireless communication infrastructure is used for train control, then device complexity is reduced, but communication availability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The base station is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as a dedicated train control base station and a commercial mobile communication base station. This allows the same hardware infrastructure to support multiple communication protocols and functions, reducing overall device complexity while maintaining multiple communication paths for improved availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the dedicated train control communication infrastructure with commercial mobile communication infrastructure at the base station level. By combining these functions in a single base station, the system reduces the number of separate devices needed while ensuring that train control operations can fall back to the dedicated path if commercial communication fails.
3Reliability
If control commands are transmitted through multiple interfaces and core networks for redundancy, then communication stability improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces intermediary elements such as gateway devices and protocol converters that mediate between the dedicated train control network and the commercial mobile network. These intermediaries handle the complexity of multi-network communication, translating and routing commands appropriately while presenting a simplified interface to the train control system.
Solution Approach 2:
Critical control commands are copied and transmitted through multiple independent paths simultaneously. The system creates redundant copies of control messages that travel through both the dedicated train control network and the commercial mobile network, ensuring that at least one copy arrives even if one path fails, thereby improving stability without requiring complex selection logic.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a method of operating a network device for train control in a wireless communication system, the method including: generating control information for train control; providing a first control command to a first base station through a first interface based on the control information; and providing a second control command to a second base station through a second interface based on the control information, wherein the first control command or the second control command is provided to the first base station or the second base station through the first interface or the second interface via a first core network for train control, and one of the first base station and the second base station is connected to a second core network.