System and Method for Establishing an Intervehicle Communication

Abstract

A system for establishing an intervehicle communication for at least a first and a second commercial vehicle includes several wireless and/or wired communication lines, at least one message sending module and at least one message receiving module. The message sending module is configured and arranged to send the at least one message over one or more lines. The message receiving module is configured to receive the message over one or more lines.

Claims

1.-12. (canceled)

13. A system for establishing an intervehicle communication for at least a first and a second commercial vehicle, comprising: several wireless, wired and/or physical communication lines between the first and second commercial vehicles; at least one message sending module; and at least one message receiving module, wherein the message sending module is configured and arranged to send the at least one message over one or more of the communication lines between the first and second commercial vehicles, and the message receiving module is configured to receive the message over one or more of the communication lines between the first and second commercial vehicles.

14. The system according to claim 13, further comprising: at least one message transmission quality monitoring module, which is configured and arranged to monitor and/or assess transmission quality of a message sent from the message sending module to the message receiving module.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the message transmission quality monitoring module is configured and arranged to trigger an additional transmission of the message over one or more of the communication lines when a quality drop of transmission is detected.

16. The system according to claim 13, wherein at least two of the communication lines are non-overlapping wireless channels.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the non-overlapping wireless channels are no closer to each other than 50 MHz.

18. The system according to claim 16, wherein communication over at least one of the non-overlapping wireless channels is in conformity with at least one of the following standards: WiFi, Bluetooth, WAVE, ETSI ITS-G5, IEEE 802.15.4, or C-V2X.

19. A method for establishing an intervehicle communication for at least a first and a second commercial vehicle, comprising: providing several wireless and/or wired communication lines between the first and second commercial vehicles; sending at least one message over one or more of the communication lines; and receiving the message over one or more of the communication lines.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the message is sent over at least two of the communication lines simultaneously.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein the message is sent over at least two of the communication lines, wherein the second line is used in case the first line is temporarily not in operation, a transmission quality is low, and/or transmission of the first line is corrupted.

22. The method according to claim 19, wherein the method is performed using the system according to claim 13.

23. A message sending module for a system for establishing an intervehicle communication according to claim 13, wherein the message sending module is configured and arranged to send the at least one message over one or more lines.

24. A message receiving module for a system for establishing an intervehicle communication according to claim 13, wherein the message receiving module is configured to receive the message over one or more lines.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a commercial vehicle combination, comprising a truck and a trailer, with a system for establishing an intervehicle communication according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0028] FIG. 2 is a timing diagram of simultaneous messaging; and

[0029] FIG. 3 is a timing diagram of redundant communication with standby, backup messaging.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] FIG. 1 shows a schematical drawing commercial vehicle with the vehicle combination comprising a truck 5 and a trailer 7 equipped with a system 10 for establishing an intervehicle communication for at least a first and a second commercial vehicle, here between the truck 5 and the trailer 7.

[0031] In this embodiment, the tethered vehicles are the truck 5 and the trailer 7.

[0032] Generally speaking, it would be also possible that the tethered vehicles are a first trailer and a second trailer, e.g. in the scenario of a road train. In such a scenario, the tethered vehicles could be the truck, the first trailer and the second trailer.

[0033] Both vehicles have at least one communication ECU 13, 14.

[0034] The ECU 13 is the ECU of the trailer 7 and the ECU 14 is the ECU of the truck 5.

[0035] Both ECU 13, 14 are equipped with two or more communication links 11, 12.

[0036] The communication links 11, 12 may be wired or may be wireless. In the shown embodiment, the communication links 11, 12 are wireless.

[0037] Also, a physical communication link of any suitable kind could be used.

[0038] Here, the communication links 11, 12 are WiFi-connections.

[0039] The ECU 13 of the trailer has two respective transceivers 11B and 12B and the ECU 14 of the truck 5 has corresponding transceivers 11A and 12A.

[0040] The transceivers 11A, 11B and 12A, 12B form the message sending modules and message receiving modules of the system.

[0041] As the transceivers 11A, 11B and 12A, 12B are capable to send and receive, they form a module with integrated message sending and message receiving capability. Thus, they are at the same time a message sending module and a message receiving module and they are configured and arranged to send messages over one or more communication links/lines 11, 12 and they are configured to receive messages over one or more communication links/lines 11, 12.

[0042] The two or more WiFi channels/WiFi connections 11, 12 are far enough from each other in terms of frequency.

[0043] As an alternative to WiFi, the communication over at least one of the wireless lines can in conformity with at least one of the standards: Bluetooth, WAVE, ETSI ITS-G5, IEEE 802.15.4, C-V2X or the like.

[0044] A possible combination could be the use of Bluetooth additionally to the WiFi standard. So, one communication link could be a WiFi-link and another communication link could be a Bluetooth link.

[0045] Generally, it could be possible to use a first standard for a first link and a second standard for the second link, wherein the second standard is different from the standard used for the first link.

[0046] They may be arranged and configured as non-overlapping wireless channels 11, 12.

[0047] Thus, it is unlikely that the same source of disturbance harms both of them.

[0048] For example, the wireless channels 11, 12 can be chosen such that they are no closer to each other than 50 MHz.

[0049] Alternatively, one of the connections 11, 12 may be a WiFi link in the 5 GHz range and the other connection may be a Bluetooth link in the 2.4 GHz range.

[0050] The system 10 further comprises at least one message transmission quality monitoring module 15.

[0051] The message transmission quality monitoring module 15 is configured and arranged to monitor and/or assess the transmission quality of a message sent from the message sending module 11A, 11B, 12A, 12B to the message receiving module 11A, 11B, 12A, 12B.

[0052] In one embodiment as shown in FIG. 2, the data in form of messages M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M7 or M8 travel simultaneously over the communication link 11 from transceiver 11A to transceiver 11B and vice versa.

[0053] At the same time, the same messages M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M7 or M8 travel simultaneously over the other communication link 12 from transceiver 12A to transceiver 12B and vice versa.

[0054] If one of the communication links gets corrupted, as it is the case for the sent messages M4 to M7 in the communication link 11, even if that corruption is only temporary (here shown in case of a drop of quality of service of a certain, short amount of time) the other communication link 12 is still functional and therefore capable of transmitting data.

[0055] Such a drop of quality of service is detected by the message transmission quality monitoring module 15.

[0056] This module is measuring continuously the quality of service of the data or message transmission in the communication links 11, 12.

[0057] Consequently, the messages M4 to M7 will be sent and received correctly and even in such a case the intervehicle communication remains still active and can operate.

[0058] Here, the second channel or communication link 12 remains active and undisturbed and thus allows continuous communication.

[0059] In another embodiment as shown in FIG. 3, not all the communication links are continuously active.

[0060] In this embodiment, all structural and functional features of the system 3 as shown in FIG. 1 are present and realized.

[0061] Only the following differences are present and will be described below.

[0062] Here communications links 11 and 12 are provided.

[0063] The non-active link is the communication link 12 between the transceivers 12A and 12B.

[0064] The communication link 12 between the transceivers 12A and 12B stays in a standby, back-up state, ready for taking over communication when it is needed. This is, for example, the case, when there is a drop of quality of service between communication link 11 between the transceivers 11A and 11B.

[0065] The drop of service as shown in FIG. 3 affects the transmittal of messages M4 to M7.

[0066] To accomplish this, a link selector logic 17 is needed to be implemented on both vehicles, here the truck 5 and the trailer 7.

[0067] The link selector logic 17 can be part of the message transmission quality monitoring module 15.

[0068] The link selector logic 15 needs to be capable of determining when the quality of service of the active communication link drops below a threshold level. An advantage of such a solution is the more efficient use of spectrum in case of wireless links.

[0069] So, the message transmission quality monitoring module 15 is configured and arranged to trigger an additional transmission of the message over one or more lines, i.e. the communication links 11, 12 when a quality drop of transmission is detected.

REFERENCES

[0070] 5 Truck [0071] 7 Trailer [0072] 10 System for establishing an intervehicle communication [0073] 11 Communication line, communication link [0074] 12 Communication line, communication link [0075] 11A Transceiver [0076] 11B Transceiver [0077] 12A Transceiver [0078] 12B Transceiver [0079] 13 Electronic control unit (ECU) [0080] 14 Electronic control unit (ECU) [0081] 15 Message transmission quality monitoring module [0082] 17 Link selector logic [0083] M1 Message 1 [0084] M2 Message 2 [0085] M3 Message 3 [0086] M4 Message 4 [0087] M5 Message 5 [0088] M6 Message 6 [0089] M7 Message 7 [0090] M8 Message 8