COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR A RAIL VEHICLE, AND METHOD FOR OPERATING THE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

The invention relates to a communication system for a rail vehicle (10), and to a method for operating a communication system of the rail vehicle (10). The communication system comprises a communication network (20) having at least one functional device (41-47), wherein a functional network address (TW1; TW2; TW3) for addressing the functional device (43; 44; 46) is assigned to the at least one functional device (43; 44; 46) by means of a control application (60), and wherein the functional network address (TW1; TW2; TW3) has a function-specific portion (TW), which represents a function of the functional device (43; 44; 46) in a predefined configuration of the rail vehicle (10). In a preferred embodiment, the functional network address (TW1; TW2; TW3 ) comprises a relative portion ("1"; "2";"3 "), which identifies a functional device (43; 44; 46) to be addressed amongst a plurality of functional devices (43; 44; 46) of the same function (TW). In a further preferred embodiment, the communication system comprises a communication device (61, 62) configured to map the functional network address (TW3) onto a network address (35) of a network component (36) of a configuration-dependent network structure (34) of the rail vehicle (10). The mapping is preferably carried out on the basis of determining the configuration of the rail vehicle, during a train inauguration, for example.