Patent Grant
12087992
The invention concerns a communication system according.
Such a communication system is known, for example, from DE 10 2013 002 227 B4. It permits communication with high bandwidth and noise immunity between a vehicle guided along a predetermined movement path and a fixed station. An antenna is arranged on a vehicle so that it projects through a slot into the cavity of a waveguide and can receive and/or transmit electromagnetic waves propagating along the waveguide while the vehicle is moving. A corresponding antenna of a fixed station is arranged at one end of the waveguide.
In a communication system of this type there is a demand for a high data rate, particularly because it is intended control the movement of one or more vehicles from the fixed station and this control is sometimes critical in terms of safety. For example, it must be ensured that a control command to stop in front of an obstacle will reliably reach a vehicle within a predetermined time interval so that a collision with the obstacle can be avoided. A high data rate can be achieved by using system components with correspondingly large bandwidth, which, however, is associated with corresponding costs insofar as such components are available on the market.
One aspect of the invention is to provide an expedient and cost-effective means of achieving a high data rate for a generic communication system.
Accordingly, a communication system is disclosed herein. Advantageous embodiments are also disclosed.
In a communication system according to the invention for communication between a vehicle guided along a predetermined movement path and a fixed station, using a slotted waveguide that extends parallel to the movement path of the vehicle and into which project at least one antenna connected to a transmitting and receiving device of the vehicle and at least one antenna connected to a transmitting and receiving device of the fixed station, wherein the antenna of the vehicle is moved in the longitudinal direction of the slot during movement of the vehicle, at least two separate transmitting and receiving devices for at least one transmission channel are provided on the fixed station and on the vehicle and the transmitting and receiving devices are each connected via at least one coupler to at least one common antenna, via which the signals of all transmission channels are emitted and received.
An increase in data rate is therefore achieved by providing at least two different transmission channels, for which the slotted waveguide is used as a common transmission medium. At least one additional transmission channel is provided by the use of an additional transmitting and receiving device. In order to be able to transmit and receive with only one antenna, the signals of the different channels are combined by means of at least one coupler on the way to the antenna and are simultaneously fed to the transmitting and receiving devices by means of said coupler in the opposite transmission direction.
However, this permits not only a correspondingly higher data rate, but also simplifies exchange of messages of different categories in comparison with the use of a single-channel transmitting and receiving device of higher bandwidth. For example, messages can easily be assigned to different channels according to their content and/or priority and transmitted by different transmitting and receiving devices so that both the propagation of messages on the transmitter side and their processing on the receiver side are simplified. There is the additional capability that different system components can communicate with one another simultaneously but independently of each other via different transmitting and receiving devices on the side of the fixed station and on the side of the vehicle.
The use of more than a single transmitting and receiving device also creates partial redundancy of the hardware, which permits communication to be maintained even during failure of one of the transmitting and receiving devices, which have higher failure probability as active system components than passive system components. This partial redundancy of the hardware can also be utilized for redundant data transmission, i.e., the same message can be transmitted simultaneously with different transmitting and receiving devices on different channels in order to increase reliability of data transmission. In this case, an increase in data rate is dispensed with in favor of reliability.
The coupler is expediently a three-port coupler that couples a first and second connection with a third connection. If signal paths lead from the first and second connections to different transmitting and receiving devices that are intended to transmit and receive independently of one another, then it is expedient if the coupler decouples the first and second connections from each other. One transmitting and receiving device can be in transmitting mode while the other is in receiving mode. If the attenuation between these connections of the coupler is too low, this would lead to interference in receiving mode. A suitable embodiment of such a coupler is a Wilkinson coupler. This is characterized by low losses between the connections to be coupled and high attenuation between the connections to be decoupled and can be implemented with simple means.
In order to achieve a sufficient range of communication, for long transmission distances it is advantageous that the slotted waveguide consist of two sections separate from each other that extend in opposite directions from a location at which their ends are arranged adjacent to each other, and that each section of the slotted waveguide has its own antenna of the fixed station projecting into the corresponding section. The maximum total length of the transmission path can thereby be significantly increased.
The antennas of the fixed station are preferably arranged at the adjacent ends of the separate sections that are expediently situated at the center of the transmission path. Through this arrangement, its maximum total length can be increased to twice the maximum length of each individual section. The latter is limited by attenuation of the signal during propagation in the slotted waveguide.
When the slotted waveguide consists of two separate sections and two antennas are to be used at the fixed station, an advantageous configuration consists of connecting two couplers in series in the form of reciprocal three-port couplers so that the first and second connections of the first coupler are connected to one of the transmitting and receiving devices, the first and second connections of the second coupler are connected to one of the antennas and the third connections of both couplers are connected to each other. Relative to an arrangement with only one antenna, apart from the second antenna, only an additional coupler of the same type as present in the variant with only one antenna is required as additional system component in order to achieve expansion to operation with two antennas.
In such a configuration, it is an advantageous if the first coupler couple its first and second connections with its third connection and its first and second connections are decoupled and the second coupler couples all three of its connections with each other. While the first coupler is connected to two different transmitting and receiving devices that are not intended to mutually interfere during simultaneous operation, the second coupler is connected to two antennas in different sections of the slotted waveguide, which are not intended to be separated from each other for message transmission but should form a continuous transmission medium. Decoupling between two of the three connections of the second coupler is therefore undesired. Suitable embodiments of the second coupler are a tapper or a reactive power divider. Both are reciprocal three-port couplers that couple all three of their connections to one another, as is desired for the application here, wherein the insertion losses between different pairs of connections are not the same and do not have to be.
If the slotted waveguide consists of two separate sections, it is advantageous that two antennas be arranged on the vehicle one behind the other in the travel direction at a predetermined distance, that the vehicle have two transmitting or receiving devices for at least two different transmission channels, and that two couplers be connected in parallel between two antennas in the two transmitting and receiving devices in the form of reciprocal three-port couplers that couple a first and second connection with a third connection and decouple the first and second connections from each other so that the first connection of each coupler is connected to the first transmitting and receiving device, the second connection of each coupler is connected to the second transmitting or receiving device and the third connection of each coupler is connected to one of the antennas. Each transmitting and receiving device of the vehicle can transmit and receive independently of the others via each antenna of the vehicle.
If the slotted waveguide consists of two sections separated from each other by a gap, the spacing of the antennas on the vehicle is preferably greater than the width of the gap by at least as much so that at least one of the antennas in one of the two sections of the slotted waveguide is in a position ready to transmit and receive. Interruption of communication can then be avoided on passing over a gap between the two sections of the slotted waveguide.
An attenuation element can be optionally connected between the transmitting and receiving devices of the fixed station and/or the vehicle and the corresponding connection of a coupler in order to reduce the power emitted by the antenna to a desired value at a stipulated power of a transmitter or to reduce the power received by an antenna to a desired value before being fed to a receiver. The residual power that flows in undesired fashion between those connections of a coupler that the coupler is actually intended to decouple from each other can also be reduced by such attenuation elements.
A preferred solution for separation of the different transmission channels is their assignment to different frequency bands. The different transmission channels can also consist of at least two transmission channels of a multichannel transmission and receiving device bundled together.
Embodiment examples of the invention are described below with reference to the drawings. In the drawings
As shown in
As also shown in
However, it is not at all necessary to provide only a single control device 12 or 13 on the fixed station 5 or on vehicle 4 as corresponding message source or message sink, but both the transceivers 10 and 11 of the fixed station 5 as well as the transceivers 17 and 18 of the vehicle 4 could each be connected to two message sources or message sinks separate from each other, which are intended to be able to communicate simultaneously but independently of each other. Such simultaneous and independent communication between at least two pairs of message sources and message sinks via a single slotted waveguide is easily permitted by the invention. In particular, in this configuration, messages could also be transmitted simultaneously in opposite directions, for example, one message from transceiver 10 of fixed station 5 to transceiver 17 of vehicle 4 and simultaneously another message from transceiver 18 of vehicle 4 to the transceiver 11 of fixed station 5.
The transceivers 10 and 11 of fixed station 5 operate on different channels, i.e., frequency regions of the frequency band for which the slotted waveguide 1 is suitable as transmission path. The same also applies to transceivers 17 and 18 of the vehicle, transceivers 10 and 17 and transceivers 11 and 18 each operating on the same channel. Through simultaneous use of two transceivers operating on different channels both in fixed station 5 and on board vehicle 4, doubling of the maximum transmittable data rate is obtained in comparison with use of only a single transceiver.
One coupler 7 or 14 each is provided in order to require only a single antenna 6 or 3 to emit and to receive signals both in fixed station 5 and also on board vehicle 4. The coupler 7 of the fixed station has three connections. The antenna 6 of the fixed station 5 is connected to one of them. One of the transceivers 10 and 11 is connected to each of the two other connections, in which case one attenuation element 8 or 9 can be optionally connected between coupler 7 and transceivers 10 and 11. The coupler 7 is direction-selective, i.e., it couples each of the connections to which transceivers 10 and 11 are connected symmetrically with the connection to which the antenna 6 is connected and decouples the two connections to which transceivers 10 and 11 are connected. It therefore acts as a splitter for the received signals, i.e., it distributes the signal power received from the antenna approximately equally to the two transceivers 10 and 11 and acts as a combiner for the transmitted signals of transceivers 10 and 11, i.e., it supplies them together to the single antenna 6. The same naturally applies to the function of coupler 14 of vehicle 4 with respect to the antenna 3 and the transceiver 17 and 18 there.
A suitable design of a coupler 7 or 14 is that of a Wilkinson divider, which consists essentially of two lines each with a quarter wavelength of the center frequency of the frequency band to be transmitted between the antenna connection and each of the two other connections, as well as an absorption resistor between the two other connections. This design of a coupler 7 or 14 can be implemented cost effectively using a printed circuit board or hybrid technology.
The control device 12 of fixed station 5 is connected to both of the transceivers 10 and 11 there and the control device 13 of vehicle 4 is connected to both of the transceivers 17 and 18 there. The control devices 12 and 13 therefore have two channels available for their communication and have much greater bandwidth overall. This permits not only correspondingly higher data rates, but the exchange of messages of different categories is also thereby simplified relative to the use of a single transceiver of greater bandwidth. For example, messages can be distributed according to content and/or priority to the two different channels so that the processing of messages is simplified. If necessary, the bandwidths of the channels can be different with this type of distribution of data of different categories on different channels. For example, a video signal can be transmitted on a channel with a bandwidth of 40 MHz and control data on a channel with a bandwidth of 20 MHz.
Moreover, partial redundancy of hardware is created by the two transceivers 10 and 11 or 17 and 18 and optionally the two connected attenuation elements 8 and 9 or 15 and 16. When a transceiver and/or attenuation element fails, all communication can occur via the still functional part of the communication system so that total failure of the communication system is avoided and its reliability increased. This is particularly significant for transceivers 10 and 11 or 17 and 18, since, as active components, they have a greater probability of failure than passive components, like antennas 3 and 6, couplers 7 and 14 and attenuation elements 8, 9, 15 and 16. However, a single message can also be simultaneously transmitted over both transceivers 10 and 11 or 17 and 18 in order to increase the reliability of transmission.
As already mentioned, instead of just one control device 12 or 13, two independent units that are connected to one of the transceivers 10 and 11 or 17 and 18 and function as sources or sinks of the messages sent or received by transceivers 10 and 11 or 17 and 18 could be present both at fixed station 5 and on board vehicle 4.
The second coupler 120 can be of different design, since the same requirements do not exist with respect to decoupling of two of its connections, as in coupler 107. In contrast, it can even be desirable for the second coupler 120 to have the smallest possible attenuation between all three of its connections in order to couple both antennas 106A and 106B not only with the first coupler 107, but also with each other in order to make signals sent from a vehicle 104 in one of the two sections 101A or 101B of the slotted waveguide 101 receivable for another vehicle 104 situated in the other section 101B or 101A, thereby avoiding collisions between transmitted signals of different vehicles 104. A suitable type of coupler for this purpose is a tapper.
However, a single antenna is not connected to the third connection of coupler 107, but the third connection of the second coupler 120. The antennas 106A and 106B are connected to the first two connections of the second coupler 120. These are decoupled from each other by the second coupler 120 and each coupled with the third connection. Through this circuit the signals received from both antennas 106A and 106B are first combined by the second coupler 120, and the combined signal is then fed by the first coupler 107 to the two transceivers 110 and 111 with uniform division of its power. The transmitted signals emitted in the opposite direction by the two transceivers 110 and 111 are first combined by the first coupler 107 and the combined signal then fed by the second coupler 120 to the two antennas 106A and 106B for emission with uniform distribution of its power.
In this way, the transmitted signals of both transceivers 110 and 111 are uniformly emitted in both sections 101A and 101B of the slotted waveguide 101 and the signals received from both sections 101A and 101B of the slotted waveguide 101 by the antennas 106A and 106B are fed to both transceivers 110 and 111. The gap 119 between sections 101A and 101B of the slotted waveguide 101 is preferably situated at the center of the travel path of the transport system, and the antennas 106A and 106B are arranged close to gap 119 so that the maximum range of communication is doubled in comparison with the arrangement of a single antenna at one end of a single slotted waveguide.
The two antennas 103A and 103B of vehicle 104 are offset relative to each other in its travel direction so that an antenna 103A extends into section 101A and the other antenna 103B extends into section 101B of the slotted waveguide 101 at a gap 119 between sections 101A and 101B of the slotted waveguide 101. Interruption of communication is thus avoided when the vehicle 104 travels over a gap 119 between sections 101A and 101B of the slotted waveguide 101, especially when an antenna 103A or 103B is situated in the region of gap 119 and a signal therefore can no longer be transmitted via this antenna 103A or 103B.
Two transceivers 117 and 118 are provided on board vehicle 104, which operate on the same channels as transceivers 110 and 111 of the fixed station so that a transceiver 117 or 118 of vehicle 104 is assigned to each transceiver 110 and 111 of the fixed station. The transceivers 117 and 118 each have two connections for signal paths leading to one antenna. A signal path leads from the first of these connections to the first antenna 103A and a signal path leads from the second of these connections to the second antenna 103B, so that each transceiver 117 and 118 is connected to each of the antennas 103A and 103B.
To implement this, the antennas 103A and 103B are each connected to a third connection of a coupler 114A or 114B, which is of the same design as the coupler 107 of the fixed station 105. The first connection of each of these couplers 114A and 114B is connected to a connection of the first transceiver 117 via an optional attenuation element 115A or 115B. The second connection of each of these couplers 114A and 114B is connected to a connection of the second transceiver 118 via an optional attenuation element 116A or 116B. The couplers 114A and 114B each couple their first and second connections with their third connection and decouple their first and second connections from each other. At any time, there is therefore a continuous signal path between each transceiver 110 and 111 of the fixed station 105 to the correspondingly assigned transceiver 117 and 118 of vehicle 104, especially when the vehicle 104 travels over the gap 119 between the slotted waveguide sections 101A and 101B and one of the two antennas 103A or 103B of the vehicle 104 is situated in the region of gap 119.
It is also possible that the range of communication is sufficient with a circuit arrangement of the fixed station 5 according to the first embodiment of
The coupling of the two antenna connections of transceivers 210 and 211 by couplers 221 and 222 results in a bundling of the two channels of each of the individual transceivers 210 and 211 to form a channel of twice the bandwidth, which therefore permits a doubled data rate of a single channel. This channel bundling is known per se and is not an object of the present invention. It is merely demonstrated with this embodiment example that the coupling according to the invention of different transmission and receiving devices with a common slotted waveguide antenna can also be applied to already bundled channels of such transmitting and receiving devices. By analogy with the first embodiment of
The configuration according to
In this case, two transceivers each with four antenna connections are required on the vehicle side, which would connect four optional attenuation elements and two couplers corresponding to coupler 207 to the two antennas of the vehicle via a total of four couplers corresponding to couplers 221 and 222, in which case the connections between the couplers on the antenna side and the optional attenuation elements and the optional attenuation elements on the transceiver side partially intersect, similar to the configuration of
Two single channel transceivers or two two-channel transceivers each with channel bundling are provided in the above-described embodiment examples. This is not to be understood as a constraint of the invention to two channels. The invention instead also includes configurations with more than two channels. For example, a three-channel system could be implemented by using three transceivers in the fixed station and in the vehicle in combination with couplers in the form of reciprocal four-port couplers that each couple one of the ports with the other three and decouple the other three from each other. Wilkinson couplers with four connections can be considered for this purpose. For a communication system with four channels, four transceivers could be provided in the fixed station and in the vehicle and three couplers could be combined cascaded in two stages each with three connections, as in the embodiment examples described here, in order to divide a signal from an input into four outputs and to combine signals from four inputs into one output in the opposite direction.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2019 118 532.7 | Jul 2019 | DE | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2019/076000 | 9/26/2019 | WO |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2021/004646 | 1/14/2021 | WO | A |
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| 20220209388 A1 | Jun 2022 | US |
