Hybrid Communication Network using Wired and Wireless Communication for Railway Vehicles

Abstract

Condition monitoring techniques, which help in monitoring the operation status of on-board devices and vehicle environment from the driver cab, have been introduced in some railway vehicles. Most of these techniques consist of a single transmission line through a train line. However, it is difficult to install new transmission lines to make information transmission redundant owing to equipment limitations. For this problem, vehicle condition monitoring systems through wireless communication are being studied for their easy installation. In this study, we proposed a hybrid communication network combining wireless and wired communication, and developed its configuration method. This hybrid communication network is expected to increase the speed of wireless communication and redundancy of wired lines. Furthermore, we developed a method to calculate the processing time of the proposed network configuration method. We also implemented the proposed method in a prototype system to demonstrate the effectiveness of hybrid communication networks.