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Vehicle fleet management method and system with load balancing

  • US 10,510,132 B2
  • Filed: 08/21/2018
  • Issued: 12/17/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2008
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of managing a plurality of vehicles in a fleet of vehicles operatively controlled by a fleet management system, the method comprising:

  • maintaining a plurality of wireless communication connections between the plurality of vehicles in the fleet and a central control center, each wireless communication connection operative between one or more of the plurality of vehicles and the central control center, via a cluster of gateways and a cluster of application switches, each wireless communication connection being maintained, at least in part, by messages initiated by each connected vehicle of the plurality of vehicles, wherein the central control center, the cluster of gateways, and the cluster of application switches handle a plurality of simultaneous wireless communication connections with the plurality of vehicles;

    receiving a plurality of vehicle location messages at the central control center;

    the plurality of vehicle location messages including information indicating the geographic location of a corresponding one of the plurality of vehicles in the fleet, in real-time or near real-time;

    wherein the plurality of vehicle location messages are sent to the central control center frequently enough to maintain the wireless communication connections, wherein the central control center monitors the plurality of vehicle location messages and establishes a new communication session if a vehicle location message is not received within a predetermined time period, to ensure consistent receipt of the plurality of vehicle location messages;

    load balancing using the messaging gateways of the cluster of messaging gateways to provide maximum communication uptime for the plurality of vehicles, while only one messaging gateway of the cluster of messaging gateways is visible to any single vehicle of the plurality of vehicles, at a given time;

    wherein, based on current load conditions, one or more of the cluster of application switches determines which messaging gateway of the cluster of gateways is to maintain the wireless communication connections between a specific vehicle of the plurality of vehicles and the central control center, such that additional messaging gateways are included when the load conditions increase;

    collecting and storing the plurality of vehicle location messages and additional messages at the central control center;

    receiving, by the central control center, a polling communications from the plurality of vehicles; and

    sending, by the central control center, updates to the plurality of vehicles based on the received polling communications.

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