System and method for mobile platform cache using mobile devices

• US 10,257,304 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2016
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC (General Motors Company)
• Inventors: Lavi, Nadav, Laifenfeld, Moshe, Philosof, Tal
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Duong, Lam H
• Application Number:
  US15/170,171
• Publication Number:
  US 20170353574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,042 Days
• Field of Search: 709212
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2876 Pairs of inter-processing entities at each side of the network, e.g. split proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5683 Storage of data provided by user terminals, i.e. reverse caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A system and method that enables large content data transfers to mobile platforms is provided. The mobile platform cache system and method provided build a cache suitable for large content data transfers using the available storage capacity of one or more frequently used, existing mobile devices. The provided mobile cache system and method prioritize available free or low cost communication protocols for data transfer to one or more mobile devices, enabling the use of free Wi-Fi communications or low cost communications, and minimizing the use of cellular data transmissions for large content data transfers.

Claims

1. A mobile platform cache method, the method comprising:

at a server cache module,

(a) receiving

via communication from a mobile device cache module that is associated with the mobile platform, storage capacity information associated with a mobile device, the storage capacity information including an amount of time and an amount of available memory while the mobile device is in the mobile platform;

(b) building a storage capacity profile for the mobile device that is responsive to the received storage capacity information;

(c) optimizing the storage capacity profile for the mobile device to thereby reflect a predicted amount of available transfer time and a predicted amount of available memory while the mobile device is in the mobile platform, wherein optimizing includes rebuilding the storage capacity profile for the mobile device responsive to received updates to the storage capacity information associated with the mobile device;

(d) parsing a software program into a first number, N, of data packets based on the optimized storage capacity profile, wherein the complete software program is contained in the N data packets;

(e) determining whether Wi-Fi is available for transmission of data packets;

(f) transmitting the data packets to the mobile device, wherein transmitting is in accordance with the storage capacity profile, and is cost-prioritized as follows, (i) when Wi-Fi is available, transmit data packets via Wi-Fi, (ii) when Wi-Fi is not available, (a) delay Wi-Fi transmission of non-time sensitive data packets for a predetermined amount of time, and (b) transmit time sensitive data packets via cellular communications;

(g) commanding the mobile device to store received data packets wherein commanding is in accordance with the storage capacity profile; and

(h) receiving, from a vehicle cache module associated with the mobile platform, a transfer status comprising a number (M) and identity of the M data packets received from the mobile device.

2. The mobile platform cache method of claim 1, wherein parsing, by the server cache module, comprises encoding, by the server cache module, each data packet.

3. The mobile platform cache method of claim 2, further comprising:

repeating (c) through (h) until receiving notice that M=N, or the software program has been compiled in the mobile platform.

4. The mobile platform cache method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is one of a plurality of mobile devices associated with the mobile platform, each mobile device having a respective mobile device cache module, and further comprising;

at the server cache module,

for each mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, receiving, via communication from a respective mobile device cache module, storage capacity information associated with the mobile device, the storage capacity information including an amount of available transfer time and an amount of available memory while the mobile device is in the mobile platform;

building the storage capacity profile to include received storage capacity information from each mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, and

optimizing the storage capacity profile to thereby reflect, for each mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, a predicted amount of available transfer time and a predicted amount of available memory while the mobile device is in the mobile platform responsive to received updates to the storage capacity information of each mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices.

5. The mobile platform cache method of claim 1, wherein the storage capacity profile further comprises a storage location in the mobile device, and further comprising deleting a data packet from the storage location subsequent to it being received by the vehicle cache module.

6. The mobile platform cache method of claim 4, wherein (g) commanding the mobile device to store received data packets further comprises commanding each of the plurality of mobile devices to store,

in accordance with the storage capacity profile, at least some of the first number N of data packets.

7. The mobile platform cache method of claim 6, wherein the storage capacity profile further comprises, for each mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, a respective storage location, and further comprising:

deleting, by the server cache module, a data packet from a storage location in a respective mobile device based on the transfer status.

8. The mobile platform cache method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, via wireless communication from the mobile device cache module, an indication that the mobile device is being charged; and

wherein (g) commanding the mobile device to store received data packets further comprises storing only upon the condition that the mobile device is being charged.

9. The mobile platform cache method of claim 1, wherein obtaining a software program is responsive to a request received from the vehicle cache module or the mobile device cache module.

10. A mobile platform cache system, the system comprising:

a wireless communication module for wireless communication with a mobile device cache module associated with a mobile device and a vehicle cache module associated with a vehicle;

a processor; and

a memory device;

the processor coupled to the memory device and the wireless communication module and configured to,

(a) build, responsive to wireless communication from the mobile device cache module, a storage capacity profile in the memory device, the storage capacity profile comprising storage capacity information for the mobile device including, an amount of time and an amount of available memory while the mobile device is in the vehicle, a type of wireless communication used to transfer data packets to the mobile device, and a transfer time taken to transfer data packets from the mobile device to a vehicle;

(b) optimize the storage capacity profile for the mobile device to thereby reflect a predicted amount of available transfer time and a predicted amount of available memory while the mobile device is in the mobile platform, by rebuilding the storage capacity profile for the mobile device responsive to received updates to the storage capacity information of the mobile device;

(c) parse a software program into a first number N of data packets based on the storage capacity profile, wherein the complete software program is contained in the first number of data packets;

(d) determine whether Wi-Fi is available for transmission of data packets;

(e) transmit the data packets to the mobile device, wherein transmitting is in accordance with the storage capacity profile, and is cost-prioritized as follows, (i) when Wi-Fi is available, transmit data packets via Wi-Fi, (ii) when Wi-Fi is not available, (a) delay Wi-Fi transmission of non-time sensitive data packets for a predetermined amount of time, and (b) transmit time sensitive data packets via cellular communications;

(f) command, in accordance with the storage capacity profile, the mobile device to store received data packets;

(g) receive, from the vehicle cache module, a number (M) of data packets, and an identity of the M data packets received from the mobile device; and

(h) repeat (b) through (g) until receiving notice that the vehicle has received a required number of data packets.

11. The mobile platform cache system of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to, during parsing, encode each data packet.

12. The mobile platform cache system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to

(h) repeat (c) through (h) until receiving notice that M=N, or the software program has been compiled in the vehicle.

13. The mobile platform cache system of claim 12, wherein the mobile device is one of a plurality of mobile devices onboard the vehicle, and the processor is further configured to:

build the storage capacity profile in the memory device responsive to wireless communication from each respective mobile device cache module that storage capacity information for the mobile device, the storage capacity information including, an amount of available transfer time and an amount of available memory while the mobile device is in the vehicle, a type of wireless communication used to transfer data packets to the mobile device, and a transfer time taken to transfer data packets from the mobile device to a vehicle; and

optimize the storage capacity profile to thereby reflect, for each mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, a predicted amount of available transfer time and a predicted amount of available memory while the mobile device is in the mobile platform responsive to received updates to the storage capacity information of each mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices.

14. The mobile platform cache system of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to store data packets in the plurality of mobile devices, in accordance with the storage capacity profile.