Systems and methods for geo-staging of sensor data through distributed global (cloud) architecture

• US 10,334,502 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2018
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fedex Corporate Services Incorporated (FedEx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fedex Corporate Services Incorporated (FedEx Corporation)
• Inventors: Skaaksrud, Ole-Petter, Ainsworth, Miley
• Primary Examiner(s): Brandt, Christopher M
• Application Number:
  US15/860,854
• Publication Number:
  US 20180146414A1
• Time in Patent Office: 538 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/3065 for real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• 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: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/12 based on transmission quality or channel quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/18 based on predicted events
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/20 based on geographic position or location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

There is disclosed a method of staging real-time data in proximity to a mobile device. The method includes determining a geographic location associated with the mobile device and identifying a storage device located in proximity to the determined geographic location. The method also includes enabling real-time data published by the mobile device or provided to the mobile device to be stored on the identified storage device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising the following operations performed via one or more processors:

identifying an expected route associated with a mobile device;

identifying a set of storage devices based on the expected route, wherein the set of storage devices are within a predetermined proximity to the expected route;

determining a set of latency factors for each storage device in the identified set of storage devices based on at least one of a geographical distance between each storage device and the expected route, a number of links between each storage device and the expected route, a processing speed of each storage device, or a network speed between each storage device and the expected route;

selecting one or more storage devices from among the identified set of storage devices based on the set of latency factors for each storage device; and

enabling real-time data published by or provided to the mobile device, to be stored on the one or more selected storage devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the expected route associated with the mobile device further comprises determining the expected route based on location data associated with the mobile device and a destination location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the location data associated with the mobile device further comprises global positioning data transmitted from the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the location data associated with the mobile device further comprises network address data transmitted from the mobile device and location data associated with the network address.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the expected route associated with the mobile device further comprises determining the expected route based on location data associated a source location and a destination location.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an indication to the mobile device to publish sensor-collectable data collected via the mobile device to the one or more selected storage devices; and

retrieving the sensor-collectable data from the one or more selected storage devices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of latency factors is further based on:

a probability that the mobile device will travel to a location along the expected route; and

a cost associated with staging the real-time data at the potential storage device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a set of storage devices based on the expected route is further based on a probability that the mobile device will travel to a location along the expected route.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the one or more storage devices based on the set of latency factors for each of the identified set of storage devices further comprises:

determining a weight for each of the identified set of storage devices based on a probability that the mobile device will travel to a location along the expected route and a cost associated with staging the real-time data at each of the identified set of storage devices, and

wherein the real-time data is stored when the weight exceeds a threshold.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising polling the mobile device and receiving the location data from the mobile device based on the poll.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving location data from the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the real-time data includes a current temperature associated with a physical object, the physical object being associated with the mobile device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the expected route associated with the mobile device further comprises predicting a plurality of geographic locations to which the mobile device may be associated in a subsequent time period based on a set of known package delivery routes.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the predicted plurality of geographic locations comprise GPS coordinates.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the real-time data comprises environmental data including at least one of location data, temperature data, light data, motion data, pressure data, humidity data, gas level data, airflow data, vibration data, radiation data, time data, audio data, video data, or orientation data.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling real-time data provided to the mobile device to be stored on the one or more selected storage devices further comprises transmitting the real-time data to the one or more selected storage devices for the mobile device to access.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the accessed real-time data further comprises environmental thresholds for a package associated with the mobile device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving an alarm notice from the mobile device that one or more of the environmental thresholds for the package have been exceeded.

19. A computer-implemented method, comprising the following operations performed via one or more processors:

identifying an expected route associated with a mobile device;

identifying a set of storage devices based on the expected route, wherein the set of storage devices are within a predetermined proximity to the expected route;

determining a set of latency factors for each storage device in the identified set of storage devices based on at least one of a geographical distance between each storage device and the expected route, a number of links between each storage device and the expected route, a processing speed of each storage device, or a network speed between each storage device and the expected route;

selecting one or more storage devices from among the identified set of storage devices based on the set of latency factors for each storage device; and

enabling real-time data published by the mobile device to be stored on the one or more selected storage devices.

20. A computer-implemented method, comprising the following operations performed via one or more processors:

identifying an expected route associated with a mobile device;

identifying a set of storage devices based on the expected route, wherein the set of storage devices are within a predetermined proximity to the expected route;

determining a set of latency factors for each storage device in the identified set of storage devices based on at least one of a geographical distance between each storage device and the expected route, a number of links between each storage device and the expected route, a processing speed of each storage device, or a network speed between each storage device and the expected route;

selecting one or more storage devices from among the identified set of storage devices based on the set of latency factors for each storage device; and

transmitting real-time data for the mobile device to access to the one or more selected storage devices.