Systems and methods for utilizing mobile access points for multiple-path delay tolerant communication in a network of moving things, for example including a network of autonomous vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10506509-B2
Application number	US-201815973183-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 7, 2018
Priority date	Nov 19, 2015
Publication date	Dec 10, 2019
Grant date	Dec 10, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for optimizing data communication in a network of moving things. As non-limiting examples, various aspects of this disclosure provide systems and methods for communicating delay tolerant information in a network of moving things, for example comprising any of a variety of types of vehicles (e.g., autonomous vehicles, vehicles controlled by local operators, vehicles controlled by remote operators, etc.).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication network mobile access point (MAP) comprising:
at least one module operable to, at least:
provide wireless communication services to client devices as the MAP is moving;
receive a data packet;
during a first time period, first attempt to communicate the data packet to a destination through at least a first type of communication network access point, wherein the at least a first type of communication network access point does not comprise another MAP; and
during a second time period after the first time period, second attempt to communicate the data packet to the destination through at least a second type of communication network access point, wherein the second type of communication network access point comprises one or more other MAPs,

wherein the at least one module is operable to select a MAP of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on a predicted future location.

2. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 1 , wherein the at least one module is operable to determine a quantity of the one or more other MAPs.

3. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 2 , wherein the at least one module is operable to determine the quantity of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on hop count.

4. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 2 , wherein the at least one module is operable to determine the quantity of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on time.

5. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 4 , wherein the at least one module is operable to determine the quantity of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on a particular amount of time that has passed.

6. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 1 , wherein the at least one module is operable to select a MAP of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on geographical location information.

7. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 6 , wherein the geographical location information comprises a geographical location information of the selected MAP.

8. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 1 , wherein the at least one module is operable to select a MAP of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on a known trajectory.

9. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 8 , wherein the known trajectory comprises a known trajectory of the selected MAP.

10. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 9 , wherein the at least one module is operable to select a MAP of the one or more other MAPs based also, at least in part, on a trajectory of the MAP.

11. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 1 , wherein the predicted future location is a predicted future location of the selected MAP.

12. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 11 , wherein the at least one module is operable to select the MAP of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on the predicted future location of the selected MAP being in a coverage area of another access point.

13. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 12 , wherein the another access point is a fixed access point (FAP) of a vehicle communication network.

14. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 1 , wherein the first time period and the second time period are determined prior to the time at which the data packet is received.

15. A communication network mobile access point (MAP) comprising:
at least one module operable to, at least:
provide wireless communication services to client devices as the MAP is moving;
receive a data packet from a source MAP; and
during a first time period, at least:
first attempt to communicate the data packet to a destination through at least a first type of communication network access point, wherein the at least a first type of communication network access point does not comprises another MAP; and
while first attempting to communicate the data packet to the destination through the at least a first type of communication network access point, also attempt to communicate the data packet to the destination through one or more other MAPs,

wherein the at least one module is operable to select a MAP of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on a predicted future location of the selected MAP.

16. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 15 , wherein the at least one module is operable to determine a quantity of the one or more other MAPs.

17. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 15 , wherein the at least one module is operable to select a MAP of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on geographical location information of the selected MAP.

18. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 15 , wherein the at least one module is operable to select a MAP of the one or more other MAPs based, at least in part, on a known trajectory of the selected MAP.

19. The mobile access point (MAP) of claim 18 , wherein the at least one module is operable to select a MAP of the one or more other MAPs based also, at least in part, on a known trajectory of the MAP.

20. A communication network mobile access point (MAP) comprising:
at least one module operable to, at least:
receive a data packet from a source MAP; and
during a first time period, at least:
first attempt to communicate the data packet to a destination through at least a first type of communication network access point, wherein the at least a first type of communication network access point does not comprises another MAP; and
while first attempting to communicate the data packet to the destination through the at least a first type of communication network access point, also attempt to communicate the data packet to the destination through one or more other MAPs,

wherein the at least one module is operable to cease attempting to communicate the data packet to the destination while the source MAP continues to attempt to communicate the data packet to the destination.

21. A communication network mobile access point (MAP) comprising:
at least one module operable to, at least:
provide wireless communication services to client devices as the MAP is moving;
receive a data packet;
during a first time period, first attempt to communicate the data packet to a destination through at least a first type of communication network access point, wherein the at least a first type of communication network access point does not comprise another MAP; and
during a second time period after the first time period, second attempt to communicate the data packet to the destination through at least a second type of communication network access point, wherein the second type of communication network access point comprises one or more other MAPs,
wherein the first time period and the second time period are determined prior to the time at which the data packet is received.

Assignees

• Veniam Inc

Inventors

• Condeixa Tiago
• Azevedo Joao
• Ameixieira Carlos
• Matos Ricardo
• Russell Roy
• Barros Joao

Classifications

• H04W4/40

  for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P] · CPC title

• H04W4/38

  for collecting sensor information · CPC title

• H04L69/40

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04W48/20 Primary

  Selecting an access point · CPC title