Big telematics data network communication fault identification system method

• US 10,136,392 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2016
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GeoTab Incorporated
• Original Assignee: GeoTab Incorporated
• Inventors: Cawse, Neil Charles, Dodgson, Daniel Michael, Zhao, Yi
• Primary Examiner(s): Merlino, David P.
• Application Number:
  US15/530,114
• Publication Number:
  US 20170149602A1
• Time in Patent Office: 715 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0677 Localisation of faults
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Apparatus, device, methods and system relating to a vehicular telemetry environment for identifying in real time unpredictable network communication faults based upon pre-processed raw telematics big data logs that may include GPS data and an indication of vehicle status data, and supplemental data that may further include location data and network data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

operating a mobile device disposed in a network zone to carry out acts of;

determining a device expected communication rate for the mobile device, wherein determining the device expected communication rate comprises;

determining whether the mobile device is in an active state or in an inactive state,

in response to determining that the mobile device is in an active state, setting the device expected communication rate for the mobile device to a first rate, and

in response to determining that the mobile device is in an inactive state, setting the device expected communication rate for the mobile device to one of at least one lower rate lower than the first rate; and

operating a remote device to carry out acts of;

receiving the device expected communication rate from the mobile device,

determining an expected communication rate for the network zone based on at least the device expected communication rate for the mobile device, and,

determining whether the network zone is experiencing a communication fault based on the expected communication rate for the network zone and an actual communication rate for the network zone.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the mobile device is in the active mode or in the inactive mode comprises detecting a vehicle status of a vehicle associated with the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said vehicle status is an ignition status indication for the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said first rate is at least one communication with said remote device in each of at least one period of 100 seconds.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said inactive state includes a sleep state associated with a second rate of the at least one lower rate, and the second rate is at least one communication with said remote device in each of at least one period of 1800 seconds.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said inactive state includes a deep sleep state associated with a third rate of the at least one lower rate, the third rate is lower than the second rate, and the third rate is at least one communication with said remote device in each of at least one period of 86,400 seconds.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the mobile device is further configured to, in response to determining that the mobile device is in the inactive state, determining whether the mobile device is in a first power saving mode or a second power saving mode; and

setting the device expected communication rate to the one of at least one lower rate comprises;

setting the device expected communication rate to a second rate, of the at least one lower rate, in response to a determination that the mobile device is the first power saving mode; and

setting the device expected communication rate to a third rate, of the at least one lower rate, that is lower than the second rate, in response to determining that the mobile device is in the second power saving mode.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining whether the mobile device is in the first power saving mode or the second power saving mode comprises:

determining that the mobile device is in the first power saving mode in response to determining that the mobile device is in the inactive state; and

determining that the mobile device is in the second power saving mode in response to determining that more than a threshold period of time has elapsed since the mobile device was determined to be in the inactive state.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

one or more of the mobile device are disposed in the network zone, and

determining the expected communication rate for the network zone comprises determining the expected communication rate based on the device expected communication rate determined for each mobile device of the one or more mobile devices disposed in the network zone.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining whether the network zone is experiencing the communication fault further comprises:

comparing for at least one time frame the actual communication rate for the network zone, reflecting communications from each mobile device disposed in the network zone, to said expected communication rate; and

indicating the communication fault in the network zone when said actual communication rate is not equal to said expected communication rate within said at least one time frame.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the expected communication rate relates to a total number of network connections expected to be established by the one or more mobile devices disposed within the network zone within a period of time;

the device expected communication rate relates to a total number of network connections expected to be established by the mobile device disposed within the network zone within the period of time; and

the actual communication rate relates to a total number of network connections established by the one or more mobile devices within the period of time.