Identifying a geographic location for a stationary micro-vehicular cloud

• US 10,334,405 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2017
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2017
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Altintas, Onur, Higuchi, Takamasa, Dressler, Falko
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Nathan S
• Application Number:
  US15/799,963
• Publication Number:
  US 20190132706A1
• Time in Patent Office: 602 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4565
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• 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

Abstract

The disclosure includes embodiments for identifying a geographic location for a stationary micro-vehicular cloud. In some embodiments, a method includes receiving, by an onboard unit of a connected vehicle, a wireless beacon including a unique identifier of an infrastructure element which broadcasted the wireless beacon. The method includes identifying, based on the unique identifier, a geographic location for a stationary micro-vehicular cloud. In this way the geographic location of the stationary micro-vehicular cloud is identified without the use of global positioning system (“GPS”) data.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor of a connected vehicle communicatively coupled to a communication unit, wherein the processor is operable to execute computer code that causes the processor to;

receive, via the communication unit, a wireless beacon including a unique identifier of an infrastructure element which broadcasted the wireless beacon;

identify, based on the unique identifier, a geographic location for a stationary micro-vehicular cloud;

generate a local fingerprint that describes the unique identifier of the infrastructure element encountered by the connected vehicle during a predetermined time frame;

compare the local fingerprint to a reference fingerprint for the predetermined time frame; and

responsive to determining that the connected vehicle is presently at the geographic location for the stationary micro-vehicular cloud based on the comparison, participate in the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the infrastructure element is an open wireless access point.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the infrastructure element is included in a server.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the server is included in a roadside unit.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein comparing the local fingerprint to the reference fingerprint includes determining that the predetermined time frame is within a threshold of similarity of the reference fingerprint and wherein the predetermined time frame is a most recent time frame.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein participating in the stationary micro-vehicular cloud includes one or more of:

forming the stationary micro-vehicular cloud;

joining the stationary micro-vehicular cloud; and

leaving the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the comparison indicates that the connected vehicle is positioned at the geographic location for the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the reference fingerprint describes one or more unique identifiers of one or more infrastructure elements which are known to be located at the geographic location for the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

9. A method comprising:

receiving, by an onboard unit of a connected vehicle, a wireless beacon including a unique identifier of an infrastructure element which broadcasted the wireless beacon;

identifying, based on the unique identifier, a geographic location for a stationary micro-vehicular cloud;

generating a local fingerprint that describes the unique identifier of the infrastructure element encountered by the connected vehicle during a predetermined time frame;

comparing the local fingerprint to a reference fingerprint for the predetermined time frame; and

responsive to determining that the connected vehicle is presently at the geographic location for the stationary micro-vehicular cloud based on the comparison, participating in the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the infrastructure element is an open wireless access point.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the infrastructure element is included in a server.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the server is included in a roadside unit.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein comparing the local fingerprint to the reference fingerprint includes determining that the predetermined time frame is within a threshold of similarity of the reference fingerprint and wherein the predetermined time frame is a most recent time frame.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein participating in the stationary micro-vehicular cloud includes one or more of:

forming the stationary micro-vehicular cloud;

joining the stationary micro-vehicular cloud; and

leaving the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the comparison indicates that the connected vehicle is positioned at the geographic location for the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the reference fingerprint describes one or more unique identifiers of one or more infrastructure elements which are known to be located at the geographic location for the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

17. A computer program product of a connected vehicle comprising a non-transitory memory storing computer-executable code that, when executed by a processor of the connected vehicle, causes the processor to:

receive a wireless beacon including a unique identifier of an infrastructure element which broadcasted the wireless beacon;

identify, based on the unique identifier, a geographic location for a stationary micro-vehicular cloud;

generate a local fingerprint that describes the unique identifier of the infrastructure element encountered by the connected vehicle during a predetermined time frame;

compare the local fingerprint to a reference fingerprint for the predetermined time frame; and

responsive to determining that the connected vehicle is presently at the geographic location for the stationary micro-vehicular cloud based on the comparison, participate in the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein comparing the local fingerprint to the reference fingerprint includes determining that the predetermined time frame is within a threshold of similarity of the reference fingerprint and wherein the predetermined time frame is a most recent time frame.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the comparison indicates that the connected vehicle is positioned at the geographic location for the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the reference fingerprint describes one or more unique identifiers of one or more infrastructure elements which are known to be located at the geographic location for the stationary micro-vehicular cloud.