Communication system and method having communication data dividing and transmitting functions

• US 20020152217A1
• Filed: 03/19/2002
• Published: 10/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Sawada, Manabu, Kawai, Shigeki
• Granted Patent: US 7,136,917 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 Backbone network devices

Abstract

In a communication system, a content server reads required data from a content database and transmits the data by packet communications over public communication lines, and a network management server receives and stores the required information from the public communication lines. The network management server sends the temporarily stored data to plural transmitter stations. Each transmitter station has a corresponding dividing device. Each dividing device receives and relays to the linked transmitter station only the amount of data required for transmission to the linked transmitter station. The remaining data is simply passed by the dividing device to the next dividing device without processing the data in any way.

Claims

1. A communication system comprising:

a content database for storing data to be transmitted;

a content server for reading the data to be transmitted from the content database, adding packet codes to the read data, and transmitting the data over public communication lines;

a network management server for appropriately capturing, temporarily storing to a memory, and managing data transmitted over the public network by the content server for distribution to a network; and

a plurality of dividing devices for capturing and relaying a block of the data transmitted from the network management server, and passing the remaining data to a next dividing device, the plural dividing devices being arranged in series.

2. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein an amount of data captured from the public communication lines and temporarily stored by the network management server is an amount of data to be captured by the dividing devices and distributed to the transmitter stations.

3. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein the network management server instructs the content server what data to transmit over the public communication lines.

4. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein the packet units controlled by the content server are smaller than the blocks captured by the dividing devices, and the blocks captured by the dividing devices contain plural packets.

5. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein only a first of the plural serially disposed dividing devices is connected to the network management server.

6. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein a first and a last of the plural serially disposed dividing devices are connected to the network management server, and the network management server and plural dividing devices form a communication loop.

7. A communication system comprising:

a network management server for storing data to be transmitted to a network in a memory, and appropriately distributing the data; and

a plurality of dividing devices, each receiving data distributed from the network management server, dividing data blocks of an appropriate size from the received data, distributing the divided data block to a transmitter station, and transmitting the remaining received data to a next dividing device,

wherein the dividing devices and network management server are arranged in series.

8. A transmission data dividing apparatus comprising:

means for dividing appropriate data from data transmitted to a network of plural devices disposed in series; and

means for distributing the appropriate data to a transmitter station and passing a remaining data other than the appropriate data to another transmission data dividing apparatus.

9. A transmission data dividing apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the dividing means detects an amount of data received from the network, and the distributing means distributes data to the transmitter station until the detected amount of data reaches a specified amount, and passes the remaining data to the another transmission data dividing apparatus after the distributed data reaches the specified amount.

10. A transmission data dividing apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the dividing means detects a specified time-length, and the distributing means distributes the data received from the network to the transmitter station until the specified time-length is detected and passes the remaining data to the another transmission data dividing apparatus after the specified time-length.

11. A transmission data dividing apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the transmission data dividing apparatus is serially disposed along a vehicle roadway in a direction of vehicle travel, and a distance from an adjacent one of the transmission data dividing apparatuses is greater than a transmission range of the transmitter station.

13. A method of communication as in claim 12, wherein the part of the data taken out by the step of taking out is determined by counting an amount of data up to a specified value.

12. A method of communication comprising steps of:

receiving data from a server by a set of a dividing device and a transmitter station provided alongside a vehicle travel road;

taking out a part of the data from the received data by the dividing device of the set;

transmitting the taken-out data from the transmitter station of the set to a vehicle on the vehicle travel road;

sending a remaining part of the data other than the taken-out data to a next set of a dividing device and a transmitter station which is provided alongside the vehicle travel road; and

performing steps of taking-out, transmitting and sending by the dividing device and the transmitter station of the next set.