ARRANGEMENT FOR TRANSFERRING TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE CONTROL DATA WITHIN A SHARED DATA NETWORK

Abstract

An arrangement for connecting transportation infrastructure peripheral devices, such as elevator and escalator peripheral devices, to a transportation infrastructure devices, such as elevator, using a building network is disclosed. In the arrangement a virtually dedicated channel for communication between elevator and escalator peripheral devices is created. The channel is used for transmitting signals, such as elevator calls, so that there is no need to use a dedicated and separated network for elevator and escalator peripheral devices.

Claims

1. A transportation infrastructure arrangement comprising: at least one elevator; at least one elevator connected device; and a building data communications network, wherein the building data communications network is a shared data communication network, and wherein the at least one elevator connected device is configured to communicate with said at least one elevator using the building data communication network.

2. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the building data communication network is Ethernet.

3. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the at least one elevator connected device is an elevator calling device.

4. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the at least one elevator connected device is an operation panel of a destination control system.

5. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the communication between the at least one elevator and at least one elevator connected device is configured to use a dedicated channel in the building data communications network.

6. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the dedicated channel is provided by separating the channel using a virtual LAN or security group tagging.

7. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the dedicated channel is provided by overlaying the channel using a virtual extensible LAN.

8. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 2, wherein the at least one elevator connected device is an elevator calling device.

9. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 2, wherein the at least one elevator connected device is an operation panel of a destination control system.

10. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 3, wherein the at least one elevator connected device is an operation panel of a destination control system.

11. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 2, wherein the communication between the at least one elevator and at least one elevator connected device is configured to use a dedicated channel in the building data communications network.

12. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 3, wherein the communication between the at least one elevator and at least one elevator connected device is configured to use a dedicated channel in the building data communications network.

13. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 4, wherein the communication between the at least one elevator and at least one elevator connected device is configured to use a dedicated channel in the building data communications network.

14. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 2, wherein the dedicated channel is provided by separating the channel using a virtual LAN or security group tagging.

15. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 3, wherein the dedicated channel is provided by separating the channel using a virtual LAN or security group tagging.

16. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 4, wherein the dedicated channel is provided by separating the channel using a virtual LAN or security group tagging.

17. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 5, wherein the dedicated channel is provided by separating the channel using a virtual LAN or security group tagging.

18. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 2, wherein the dedicated channel is provided by overlaying the channel using a virtual extensible LAN.

19. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 3, wherein the dedicated channel is provided by overlaying the channel using a virtual extensible LAN.

20. The transportation infrastructure arrangement according to claim 4, wherein the dedicated channel is provided by overlaying the channel using a virtual extensible LAN.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the arrangement for transferring elevator and escalator control data within a shared network and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate example embodiments and together with the description help to explain the principles of the arrangement for transferring elevator and escalator control data within a shared network. In the drawings:

[0023] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example network used in an elevator and escalator environment; and

[0024] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the working principles of an example network similar to the one of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

[0026] In the following description, an elevator is used as an example. The arrangement is also suitable for escalators and systems comprising both elevators and escalators. Furthermore, the arrangements involving other transportation infrastructure arrangements may be used. Examples of such include access gates, doors, lighting, information screens and similar.

[0027] In FIG. 1 a block diagram of an example network arrangement that can be used in an elevator and escalator environment is shown. The arrangement shown in the figure comprises three elevators 110, 120, 130 that are connected to a building network 100. The building network 100 is shown in two different locations; however, the same building network 100 is illustrated. In the example the building network uses cabling 101 that is used to connected relevant network elements together.

[0028] Each of the elevators comprise a machine room 111, 121, 131 including controlling electronics with a network connection. Machine rooms are shown for illustrative purposes only and the arrangement can be applied also to a so called machine roomless elevator. The machine rooms 111, 121, 131 operate elevators 112, 122, 132. Cabling 102 is used to connect the elevators to the building network 100.

[0029] Devices 113, 123, 133 are devices that are connected to the elevators 110, 120, 130. For example, these devices can be calling panels that passengers use for calling an elevator, and possibly for indicating the destination. These devices may also be information panels or any other devices that are important for elevator use. Devices 113, 123, 133 are connected to the same building network 100 as the elevators 110, 120, 130. They are using the same or similar cabling 101, 102 for the connection. The cabling as discussed here should be understood to be general cabling used in a building, and it can be implemented by using several different cables. Furthermore, although cabling is discussed here, it is possible to implement at least a portion of the building network using wireless connection means.

[0030] In the arrangement of FIG. 1 the devices are connected to a transportation infrastructure control network through a building network. The building network separates elevator related data through any know method, for example VLAN/SGT separation or overlay, such as a VXLAN solution. End-to-end encryption of communication may be required depending on customer/internal requirements. A similar method can be applied to other devices, for example escalator communications requiring access to the TICN. Instead of known methods it is possible to build a special purpose network arrangement so that the elevator related data is securely separated from the building data.

[0031] In FIG. 2 it is shown how the traffic in a building network is organized. The building network 200 may be similar to the building network 100 of FIG. 1. The building network of this example is configured to perform all data communications in the building. Thus, the elevator 201 is discussing with the calling device of the destination control system 202 over the building network 200. Calling panels for the destination control system 202 can be located directly in the vicinity of the elevator; however, it is sometimes beneficial to keep the panels at a distance from the actual elevators so that people waiting in front of the elevators do not block each other. Furthermore, typically the requests cannot be fulfilled immediately, so it is beneficial if the request can be placed a little bit in advance.

[0032] In FIG. 2 a building management system 203 operating building facilities 204 is shown. In addition to these two, an office network 205 connected to office facilities 206 is shown. These two arrangements are separate from the elevator arrangement and are secured so that it is not possible to access elevators from the office network.

[0033] The arrangement described above is often limited to the use of signalization devices, such as elevator and escalator peripheral devices similar to the devices described above, relating to the safety of the elevator, as the safety related communications may be regulated by authorities. The signalization devices and other devices that do not require a real time response within a given time frame may be implemented using the building network.

[0034] In the arrangement described above the communication between the elevator 201 and elevator and escalator peripheral devices is arranged in a virtually dedicated communication channel. Such a dedicated channel may be provided, for example, by separating the channel using a virtual LAN or security group tagging. Another possibility is, for example, to use so called overlaying of the channel using a virtual extensible LAN.

[0035] The above described methods may be implemented as computer software which is executed in a computing device that can be connected to a data communication network. When the software is executed in a computing device, it is configured to perform the above described inventive method. The software is embodied on a computer readable medium, so that it can be provided to the computing device, such as the elevator and escalator network controller of FIG. 1.

[0036] As stated above, the components of the exemplary embodiments can include a computer readable medium or memories for holding instructions programmed according to the teachings of the present embodiments and for holding data structures, tables, records, and/or other data described herein. The computer readable medium can include any suitable medium that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution. Common forms of computer-readable media can include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other suitable magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, CDR, CDRW, DVD, DVD-RAM, DVDRW, DVDR, HD DVD, HD DVD-R, HD DVD-RW, HD DVD-RAM, Blu-ray Disc, any other suitable optical medium, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other suitable memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave or any other suitable medium from which a computer can read.

[0037] It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that with the advancement of technology, the basic idea of the arrangement for transferring elevator and escalator control data within a shared network may be implemented in various ways. The arrangement for transferring elevator and escalator control data within a shared network and its embodiments are thus not limited to the examples described above; instead they may vary within the scope of the claims.