US 2002/0164964 A1 · Terminal diversity for off-board railway communications

Abstract

An off-board communications system (50) for railway communications to and from a locomotive (10) and a central station (18). A radio (56) utilizes multiple antennas (52, 54) to broadcast a transmission signal (62, 64) over parallel communications paths so to insure that a data sent from a locomotive (10) is complete. In one embodiment, the antennas (52, 54) are selected to broadcast signals as a function of signal magnitude and phase weighting so to optimize transmissions directed at a remotely located receiver (42). In another embodiment, antennas (92, 94) broadcast at different frequencies, and with different modulation and broadcast protocols. A signal divider (74) such as a multiplexer divides the signal prior to transmission, and a signal recombining unit (84) recombines transmitted signals (80, 82) at the receiving site. A performance/availability checker is employed to monitor transmission integrity.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A data transmission system for off-board communications to and from a railroad train comprising:

a central processing unit to which information relating to operation of the train is received and formatted for transmission to a receiving site remote from the train;
a radio to which a signal for transmission to the receiving site is supplied by the central processing unit, the radio operating within a specified frequency range;
at least two antennas to each of which a transmission signal produced by the radio is sent for broadcasting by the antennas to a receiver located at the receiving site;
and,
the central processing unit selecting which of the antennas over which the transmission signal is broadcast at any one time.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Terminal diversity for off-board railway communications

Life of this patent

Terminal diversity for off-board railway communications

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17