Dual map system for navigation and wireless communication

• US 20020029108A1
• Filed: 08/10/2001
• Published: 03/07/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kiyoshi Maruyama, Lawrence L. Lieberman, Michael C. Greenwood, Paul A. Moskowitz, Te-Kai Liu
• Inventors: Moskowitz, Paul A., Liu, Te-Kai, Greenwood, Michael C., Maruyama, Kiyoshi, Lieberman, Lawrence L.
• Granted Patent: US 6,871,139 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements

Abstract

A system produces of an empirical map of wireless communication coverage through a process of combining information from individual clients to produce a map which is then shared by all of the clients. The wireless coverage map aids in maintaining a reliable communications link. The empirical map is generated by combining information from a group of mobile wireless users. The group may consist of a fleet of trucks, taxicabs, government service vehicles, or the customers of a wireless service provider. The mobile vehicles must be equipped with a GPS device or be located by other means such as triangulation. While vehicles are moving, the quality of wireless communication, e.g., signal strength or communication continuity, is recorded for each vehicle as a function of positions. The data from all of the vehicles is combined to produce the empirical map. The empirical map may be maintained at a central site and subsets of the map replicated for individual vehicles. The map may then be used to direct mobile users to sites of superior communications reliability, warn mobile users when they are out of the service area or are about to leave the service area, or to regulate data communications automatically to stop and restart communications as a mobile vehicle passes through a gap in coverage.

Claims

1. A dual map system in a vehicle for navigation and wireless communication comprising:

a location device to identify a position of the vehicle;

a wireless communication device;

a measurement device which determines the quality of wireless communication;

a storage device for storing a navigation map and a wireless coverage map; and

a system control unit connected to receive inputs from each of said location device, said wireless communication device, said measurement device and said storage device, said system control unit updating the wireless coverage map based on information from said measurement device and determining whether reliable communications can be established with said wireless communication device based on current location information from said location device and said street map as compared with an updated version of said wireless coverage map.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a user interface between the system control unit and a user, the user interface permitting a user to input commands to the system control unit and providing output to the user from the system control unit.

3. The system of claim 2 further comprising a computer process installed on said system control unit, said computer process called a user interface manager, the user interface manager having access to the navigation map and the wireless coverage map and interacting with the user interface and the location device such that the user interface manager interprets user commands entered by a user from the user interface to execute the user'"'"'s commands and presents results and notification of events to the user by the user interface.

4. The system of claim 2 further comprising a computer process installed on said system control unit, said computer process called a navigation manager, the navigation manager having access to the navigation map and the wireless coverage map and interacting with the user interface and the location device such that the navigation manager receives information from the location device and computes a route based on information in both the navigation map and wireless coverage map according to a user input.

5. The system of claim 2 further comprising a computer process installed on said system control unit, said computer process called a coverage manager, the coverage manager having access to the navigation map and the wireless coverage map and interacting with the user interface, the location device, and the measurement device such that the coverage manager initializes itself by a current version of the wireless coverage map, monitors current status of wireless coverage by interacting with the measurement device, predicts status of wireless coverage by looking at a route plan and the wireless coverage map, and notifies the user interface of events that are important to maintaining a wireless connection, the coverage manager further updating the wireless coverage map by new measurements from the measurement device and generating information about estimated time or distance until a next event of communication loss or interruption and estimates time until regaining coverage.

6. The system of claim 2 further comprising a computer process installed on the system control unit, said computer process called a connection manager, the connection manager having access to the wireless communication device and the wireless coverage map and interacting with the user interface such that the connection manager receives information from the user interface as when to make a connection and commands the wireless communication device to make a connection based on user input and information from the wireless coverage map.

7. The system of claim 2 further comprising:

a first computer process installed on said system control unit, said first computer process called a user interface manager, the user interface manager having access to the navigation map and the wireless coverage map and interacting with the user interface and the location means such that the user interface manager interprets user commands entered by a user from the user interface to execute the user'"'"'s commands and presents results and notification to the user by the user interface;

a second computer process installed on said system control unit, said second computer process called a navigation manager, the navigation manager having access to the navigation map and the wireless coverage map and interacting with the user interface manager and the location device such that the navigation manager receives information from the location device and computes a route based on information in both the navigation map and wireless coverage map according to a user input;

a third computer process installed on said system control unit, said third computer process called a coverage manager, the coverage manager having access to the navigation map and the wireless coverage map and interacting with the user interface manager, the location device, and the measurement device such that the coverage manager initializes itself by a current version of the coverage map, monitors current status of coverage by interacting with the measurement device, predicts status of coverage by looking at the route plan generated by the navigation manager and the wireless coverage map, and notifies the user interface manager of events that are important to maintaining wireless connection, the coverage manager further updating the wireless coverage map by new measurements from the measurement device and generates information about estimated time or distance until a next event of communication loss or interruption and estimates time until regaining coverage; and

a fourth computer process installed on the system control unit, said fourth computer process called a connection manager, the connection manager having access to the wireless communication device and the wireless coverage map and interacts with the user interface manager and the coverage manager such that the connection manager receives information from the user interface manager and the coverage manager as when to make a connection and commands the wireless communication device to make a connection based on user input and information from the coverage manager.

8. The system of claim 1 in which the wireless overage map is a predetermined wireless coverage map.

9. The system of claim 8 in which the system control unit updates the wireless coverage map by making measurements as the vehicle moves.

10. The system of claim 9 in which the system control unit updates a collective wireless coverage map stored at a server.

11. The system of claim 10 in which multiple vehicles update the collective wireless coverage map stored at the server.

12. The system of claim 11 in which the system control unit updates the wireless coverage map in the storage device in the vehicle by obtaining data from the server derived from the collective wireless coverage map.

13. The system of claim 1 in which the multiple wireless coverage maps are stored on the storage device, each of the wireless coverage maps being provided by different wireless service providers.

14. The system of claim 1 in which the location device is a GPS receiver.

15. The system of claim 1 in which the location device is a radio triangulation system.

16. The system of claim 15 in which the radio triangulation system is a LORAN-type system.