Computation service for mobile nodes in a roadway environment

• US 10,567,923 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2017
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Gade, Shripad, Tseng, Lewis, Oguchi, Kentaro
• Primary Examiner(s): Chu, Wutchung
• Application Number:
  US15/644,197
• Publication Number:
  US 20190014446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• 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: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• 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 providing a service to a vehicle via a macro-vehicular cloud. A method, according to some embodiments, is implemented by the vehicle which communicatively coupled to the macro-vehicular cloud via a non-infrastructure network. The macro-vehicular cloud includes a plurality of micro-vehicular clouds which each include a set of onboard vehicle computers that are operable to provide a set of computing resources to the macro-vehicular cloud via the non-infrastructure network. The method includes transmitting, via the non-infrastructure network, a wireless message requesting a merge service from the macro-vehicular cloud. The method includes receiving, via the non-infrastructure network, the merge service from the set of computing resources of the macro-vehicular cloud. The merge service includes the macro-vehicular cloud instructing the vehicle to merge into a lane of a roadway.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a vehicle communicatively coupled to a macro-vehicular cloud via a non-infrastructure network;

wherein the macro-vehicular cloud includes a plurality of micro-vehicular clouds;

wherein each of the micro-vehicular clouds is formed from a set of mobile nodes including the vehicle, one or more other vehicles, and a coordinator and wherein the set of mobile nodes include a set of provision systems which are operable to provide a set of computing resources to the macro-vehicular cloud via the non-infrastructure network;

wherein the set of computing resources are selected by the set of provision systems from those that are unused by the set of mobile nodes and therefore available;

wherein the vehicle is a member of a selected micro-vehicular cloud included in the plurality of micro-vehicular clouds so that the vehicle is an element of the macro-vehicular cloud; and

wherein the vehicle is operable to request a merge service from the set of computing resources of the macro-vehicular cloud via the non-infrastructure network, the coordinator accesses the computing resources of the macro-vehicular cloud via the non-infrastructure network, the vehicle receives the merge service from the coordinator of the selected micro-vehicular cloud, and the merge service instructs the vehicle to merge into a lane of a roadway.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the merge service includes specifying a latitude and longitude where the vehicle should merge into the lane of the roadway.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-infrastructure network includes a Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) network which sends and receives messages over a 5.9 gigahertz (GHz) DSRC band and the merge service is requested via a DSRC message.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-infrastructure network includes a millimeter wave communication network and the merge service is requested via a millimeter wave communication message.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-infrastructure network includes a full-duplex wireless communication network and the merge service is requested via a full-duplex wireless communication message.

6. The system of claim 1:

wherein each individual micro-vehicular cloud of the plurality of micro-vehicular clouds includes the one or more other vehicles and the coordinator;

wherein the one or more other vehicles and the coordinator are communicatively coupled to the non-infrastructure network;

wherein the coordinator of each individual micro-vehicular cloud is communicatively coupled to the macro-vehicular cloud via the non-infrastructure network; and

wherein the coordinator is operable to determine which mobile node in the set of mobile nodes stores which data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more other vehicles are at least momentarily dynamic while the plurality of micro-vehicular clouds are each located at a fixed geographical region which is static and different from the fixed geographical region of the other micro-vehicular clouds included in the plurality of micro-vehicular clouds.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of provision systems are each elements of the one or more other vehicles of the plurality of micro-vehicular clouds.

9. A method implemented by a vehicle communicatively coupled to a macro-vehicular cloud via a non-infrastructure network, wherein the macro-vehicular cloud includes a plurality of micro-vehicular clouds, each of the micro-vehicular clouds is formed from a set of mobile nodes including the vehicle, one or more other vehicles, and a coordinator, wherein the set of mobile nodes include a set of provision systems that are operable to provide a set of computing resources to the macro-vehicular cloud via the non-infrastructure network, wherein the set of computing resources are selected by the set of provision systems from those that are unused by the set of mobile nodes and therefore available, and wherein the vehicle is a member of a selected micro-vehicular cloud included in the plurality of micro-vehicular clouds so that the vehicle is an element of the macro-vehicular cloud, the method comprising:

transmitting, via the non-infrastructure network, a wireless message requesting a merge service from the macro-vehicular cloud, wherein the coordinator accesses the computing resources of the macro-vehicular cloud via the non-infrastructure network; and

receiving, via the non-infrastructure network, the merge service from the coordinator of the selected micro-vehicular cloud, wherein the merge service instructs the vehicle to merge into a lane of a roadway.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the merge service includes specifying a latitude and longitude where the vehicle should merge into the lane of the roadway.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the non-infrastructure network includes a Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) network which sends and receives messages over a 5.9 gigahertz (GHz) DSRC band and the merge service is requested via a DSRC message.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the non-infrastructure network includes a millimeter wave communication network and the merge service is requested via a millimeter wave communication message.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the non-infrastructure network includes a full-duplex wireless communication network and the merge service is requested via a full-duplex wireless communication message.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the coordinator is operable to determine which mobile node in the set of mobile nodes stores which data.

15. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory memory of an onboard vehicle computer system of a vehicle communicatively coupled to a macro-vehicular cloud via a non-infrastructure network, wherein the macro-vehicular cloud includes a plurality of micro-vehicular clouds, each of the micro-vehicular clouds is formed from a set of mobile nodes including the vehicle, one or more other vehicles, and a coordinator, wherein the set of mobile nodes include a set of provision systems that are operable to provide a set of computing resources to the macro-vehicular cloud via the non-infrastructure network, wherein the set of computing resources are selected by the set of provision systems from those that are unused by the set of mobile nodes and therefore available, wherein the vehicle is a member of a selected micro-vehicular cloud included in the plurality of micro-vehicular clouds so that the vehicle is an element of the macro-vehicular cloud, and wherein the onboard vehicle computer system stores computer-executable code that, when executed by the onboard vehicle computer system, causes the onboard vehicle computer system to:

transmit, via the non-infrastructure network, a wireless message requesting a merge service from the macro-vehicular cloud, wherein the coordinator accesses the computing resources of the macro-vehicular cloud via the non-infrastructure network; and

receive, via the non-infrastructure network, the merge service from the coordinator of the selected micro-vehicular, wherein the merge service instructs the vehicle to merge into a lane of a roadway.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the merge service includes specifying a latitude and longitude where the vehicle should merge into the lane of the roadway and the latitude and longitude are specified with lane-level accuracy.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the coordinator is operable to determine which mobile node in the set of mobile nodes stores which data.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, the set of provisioning systems are each elements of the one or more other vehicles of the plurality of micro-vehicular clouds.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the coordinator is operable to control an operation of the set of provisioning systems of the one or more other vehicles included in an individual micro-vehicular cloud which includes the coordinator.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the non-infrastructure network includes a Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) network which sends and receives messages over a 5.9 gigahertz (GHz) DSRC band and the merge service is requested via a DSRC message.