Wireless communication for vehicle based node

A fixed network for a communication system supporting communication between at least one end node of a vehicle and at least one remote correspondent node via the fixed network, the fixed network comprising a plurality of network segments and:

• a plurality of access points, each access point being arranged to establish a mm wave radio communication link to a wireless modem of a plurality of wireless modems of the vehicle and each wireless access point employing a beamforming directional antenna having a main beam for establishing the mm wave radio communication link, at least one access point of the plurality of access points being able to establish mm wave radio communication links to a plurality of wireless modems using different main beams and being arranged to select between the different main beams for a data packet in dependence on a network address of the data packet;
• a plurality of segment multipath controllers, each multipath segment controller having multipath connections coupled to at least some access points of a network segment of the plurality of network segments for multipath communication with a complementary segment multipath controller of the vehicle, the network segment for a segment multipath controller being different for different segment multipath controllers of the plurality of segment multipath controllers;
• and
• a root multipath controller having multipath connections coupled to the plurality of segment multipath controllers and being arranged to perform multipath communication with a complementary root multipath controller of the vehicle.

A method of operation for a communication system for supporting communication between at least one end node of a vehicle and at least one remote correspondent node via a fixed network comprising a plurality of network segments, the communication system comprising:

• a plurality of wireless modems, each wireless modem being arranged to establish a mm wave radio communication link to an access point of a plurality of wireless access points of the fixed network, each wireless access point having a directional antenna arrangement for mm wave radio communication using directional beams, each wireless modem being located on the vehicle and employing an electronically steerable beamforming directional antenna having a main beam for establishing the first mm wave radio communication link;
• a plurality of segment multipath controllers located on the vehicle, each multipath segment controller having multipath connections coupled to the plurality of wireless modems for the network segment being different for different segment multipath controllers of the plurality of segment multipath controllers, and
• a root multipath controller located on the vehicle and having multipath connections coupled to the plurality of segment multipath controllers;
• the method comprising:
• the plurality of segment multipath controllers performing multipath communication with a complementary segment multipath controller of a network segment of the fixed network;
• and
• the root multipath controller performing multipath communication with a complementary root multipath controller of the fixed network.

A method of operation for a fixed network for a communication system supporting communication between at least one end node of a vehicle and at least one remote correspondent node via the fixed network, the fixed network comprising a plurality of network segments and:

• a plurality of access points, each access point being arranged to establish a mm wave radio communication link to a wireless modem of a plurality of wireless modems of the vehicle and each wireless access point employing a beamforming directional antenna having a main beam for establishing the first mm wave radio communication link, at least one access point of the plurality of access points being able to establish mm wave radio communication links to a plurality of wireless modems using different main beams and being arranged to select between the different main beams for a data packet in dependence on a network address of the data packet;
• a plurality of segment multipath controllers, each multipath segment controller having multipath connections coupled to at least some access points of a network segment of the plurality of network segments, the network segment for a segment multipath controller being different for different segment multipath controllers of the plurality of segment multipath controllers;
• and
• a root multipath controller having multipath connections coupled to the plurality of segment multipath controllers;
• the method comprising:
• the plurality of segment multipath controllers performing multipath communication with a complementary segment multipath controller of the vehicle;
• and
• the root multipath controller performing multipath communication with a complementary root multipath controller of the vehicle.