Messaging system with one-to-many communication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12580880-B2
Application number	US-202318395204-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2023
Priority date	Jul 31, 2023
Publication date	Mar 17, 2026
Grant date	Mar 17, 2026

Abstract

A messaging system is provided to communicate messages between computing devices. The computing devices can include vehicles and service computers. The messaging system includes nodes and virtual entities that may forward messages between computing devices. The messaging system may be a publish-subscribe system. The messaging system may provide one-to-many communication.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
receiving a message from a first computing device via a first virtual entity, wherein the first computing device is associated with the first virtual entity; determining that a set of computing devices should receive the message; identifying a set of virtual entities based on the message, wherein each computing device of the set of computing devices is associated with a respective virtual entity; and forwarding the message to the set of computing devices via a publish-subscribe (pub-sub) system, the first virtual entity, and the set of virtual entities, wherein the pub-sub system comprises a plurality of nodes to process messages for the pub-sub system, and wherein the first virtual entity and the set of virtual entities are located in the plurality of nodes of the pub-sub system.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the set of computing devices should receive the message comprises:
identifying a topic associated with the message; and determining whether the set of computing devices are subscribed to the topic.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first virtual entity is located on a first node of the plurality of nodes, and wherein the set of virtual entities are located on a set of nodes of the plurality of nodes.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein forwarding the message to the set of computing devices comprises:
forwarding the message directly from the first node to the set of nodes.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the pub-sub system refrains from forwarding the message to other nodes in the plurality of nodes.

6 . The method of claim 3 , wherein a first network connection exists between the first computing device and the first node and wherein a set of network connections exist between the set of computing devices and the set of nodes.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
tracking a plurality of subscriptions to a plurality of topics of the pub-sub system.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
tracking the locations of a set of virtual entities in the plurality of nodes.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first virtual entity and the set of virtual entities comprise endpoints for the message.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first computing device comprises a vehicle and the set of computing devices comprises a server computer; or the first computing device comprises the server computer and the set of computing devices comprises the vehicle.

11 . An apparatus, comprising:
a memory configured to stored data; and a processing device communicatively coupled to the memory, the processing device configured to:
receive a message from a first computing device via a first virtual entity, wherein the first computing device is associated with the first virtual entity;
determine that a set of computing devices should receive the message;
identify a set of virtual entities based on the message, wherein each computing device of the set of computing devices is associated with a respective virtual entity; and
forward the message to the set of computing devices via a publish-subscribe (pub-sub) system, the first virtual entity, and the set of virtual entities, wherein the pub-sub system comprises a plurality of nodes to process messages for the pub-sub system, and wherein the first virtual entity and the set of virtual entities are located in the plurality of nodes of the pub-sub system.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein to determine that the set of computing devices should receive the message the processing device is further configured to:
identify a topic associated with the message; and determine whether the set of computing devices are subscribed to the topic.

13 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the first virtual entity is located on a first node of the plurality of nodes, and wherein the set of virtual entities are located on a set of nodes of the plurality of nodes.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein to forward the message to the second computing device the processing device is further configured to:
forward the message directly from the first node to the set of nodes.

15 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the pub-sub system refrains from forwarding the message to other nodes in the plurality of nodes.

16 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein a first network connection exists between the first computing device and the first node and wherein a set of network connections exist between the set of computing devices and the set of nodes.

17 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
track a plurality of subscriptions to a plurality of topics of the pub-sub system.

18 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing device is further configured to:
track the locations of a set of virtual entities in the plurality of nodes.

19 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the first virtual entity and the set of virtual entities comprise endpoints for the message.

20 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving a message from a first computing device via a first virtual entity, wherein the first computing device is associated with the first virtual entity; determining that a set of computing devices should receive the message; identifying a set of virtual entities based on the message, wherein each computing device of the set of computing devices is associated with a respective virtual entity; and forwarding the message to the set of computing devices via a publish-subscribe (pub-sub) system, the first virtual entity, and the set of virtual entities, wherein the pub-sub system comprises a plurality of nodes to process messages for the pub-sub system, and wherein the first virtual entity and the set of virtual entities are located in the plurality of nodes of the pub-sub system.

Assignees

• Cariad Se
• Volkswagen Ag

Inventors

• Gibson Robert
• Scherrer Jeffery
• Ward Jason
• Nafdey Sameer
• Hartmann Matthew
• Unkrur Brandon
• Brachkov Filip
• Allen Robert

Classifications

• H04L67/60 Primary

  Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources (admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04L51/07

  characterised by the inclusion of specific contents · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• H04L67/562

  Brokering proxy services · CPC title

• H04L51/21 Primary

  Monitoring or handling of messages · CPC title