Method of cellular connectivity reporting

• US 20040203728A1
• Filed: 05/17/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Motors LLC (General Motors Company)
• Original Assignee: General Motors Corporation (Motors Liquidation Co. GUC Trust)
• Inventors: Mazzara, William E. Jr., Schwinke, Steven P., Italia, William E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,305,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/425
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements

Abstract

The invention provides a method of reporting connectivity of a mobile vehicle. A call request fails, a failure type of the failed call request is determined, a time of the failed call request is determined, a location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred is determined, and the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred are stored.

Claims

1. A method of reporting connectivity of a mobile vehicle, comprising:

receiving a failed call request;

determining a failure type of the failed call request;

determining a time of the failed call request;

determining a location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred; and

storing the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the failure type is selected from a group consisting of an intercept notification, a reorder notification, an access denied notification, a mobile phone failure notification, a carrier-loss timeout notification, a data transfer failure notification, and a wireless modem failure notification.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the time of the failed call request is based on a global positioning system unit time stamp.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred is comprised of a longitude coordinate output and a latitude coordinate output from a global positioning system unit.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

updating an in-vehicle system identifier table based on the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

updating an in-vehicle wireless modem based on the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred to a call center database.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred to the call center database is sent automatically.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred to the call center database is sent periodically.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred to the call center database is sent in response to a query from a call center.

11. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

sending an update instruction from the call center to the mobile vehicle to reconfigure a system identifier table.

12. A computer usable medium including a program for reporting connectivity of a mobile vehicle, comprising:

computer program code for receiving a failed call request;

computer program code for determining a failure type of the failed call request;

computer program code for determining a time of the failed call request;

computer program code for determining a location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred; and

computer program code for storing the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred.

13. The computer usable medium of claim 12 further comprising:

computer program code for updating an in-vehicle system identifier table based on the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred.

14. The computer usable medium of claim 12 further comprising:

computer program code for sending the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred to a call center database.

15. The computer usable medium of claim 12 further comprising:

computer program code for sending an update instruction from the call center to reconfigure an in-vehicle system identifier table.

16. A mobile vehicle connectivity reporting system, comprising:

means for receiving a failed call request;

means for determining a failure type of the failed call request;

means for determining a time of the failed call request;

means for determining a location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred; and

means for storing the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising:

means for updating an in-vehicle system identifier table based on the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred.

18. The system of claim 16 further comprising:

means for sending the failure type, the time of the failed call request, and the location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred to a call center database.

19. The system of claim 16 further comprising:

means for sending an update instruction from the call center to reconfigure an in-vehicle system identifier table.

20. A telematics unit for reporting connectivity in a mobile vehicle, comprising:

a digital signal processor;

a mobile phone operably connected to the digital signal processor;

a wireless modem, operably connected to the digital signal processor;

a global positioning system unit, operably connected to the digital signal processor; and

an in-vehicle memory, operably connected to the digital signal processor;

wherein a failure type of a failed call request, a time of the failed call request, a location of the vehicle when the failed call request occurred are stored in the in-vehicle memory by the digital signal processor.