Vehicle tracking system

• US 20070266180A1
• Filed: 05/09/2006
• Published: 11/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Connect Development Limited
• Original Assignee: Fleetmatics Patents Limited (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Dolgopolov, Andrei, Walsh, Paul, Mitchell, Peter, Goggin, John
• Granted Patent: US 7,388,518 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A vehicle tracking system central host comprises a memory cache processor for managing a plurality of memory caches and a storage device linked with the memory cache processor, for receiving messages from the memory caches and writing them to a database. There are n receiver ports each for receiving message packets of an associated protocol from remote vehicle on-board tracker units. There are also n receiver processors, each associated with a port and each receiver processor being for: reading message packets received at the associated port, performing initial processing of the message packets including adding headers to provide processed messages, and writing the processed messages to a log dedicated to the receiver processor. There re also n decoders, each associated with a receiver processor log and being for (a) instantiating a service object for each log, (b) executing each service object to instantiate a message object in which data from a current message is written as attributes of the message object such that instantiation of the message object normalizes the message and the normalized fields include a vehicle identifier field, and (c) executing each service object to repeat step (b) for each successive message in the associated log, and (d) executing the service object to write each message object to one of said memory caches. The ports, the receiver processors, and the decoders operate in parallel.

Claims

1. A vehicle tracking system central host comprising:

a memory cache processor for managing a plurality of memory caches;

a storage device linked with the memory cache processor, for receiving messages from the memory caches and writing them to a database;

a plurality of receiver ports each for receiving message packets of an associated protocol from remote vehicle on-board tracker units;

a plurality of receiver processors, each associated with a port and each receiver processor being for;

reading message packets received at the associated port,

performing initial processing of the message packets including adding headers to provide processed messages, and

writing the processed messages to a log dedicated to the receiver processor; and

a plurality of decoders, each associated with a receiver processor log and being for;

(a) instantiating a service object for each log,

(b) executing each service object to instantiate a message object in which data from a current message is written as attributes of the message object such that instantiation of the message object normalizes the message and the normalized fields include a vehicle identifier field,

(c) executing each service object to repeat step (b) for each successive message in the associated log, and

(d) executing the service object to write each message object to one of said memory caches,

wherein the ports, the receiver processors, and the decoders operate in parallel.

2. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory cache processor manages a dedicated memory cache associated with each decoder.

3. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a data hub for centralised writing of messages from the memory caches to the storage device.

4. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an analysis engine for reading data from database tables of the storage device, processing it, and writing vehicle tracking analysis data to a reporting database table.

5. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, wherein each receiver processor, at start up, executes fast initialisation routines, returns control to an operating system, and subsequently executes long initialisation routines and enters a message wait stage.

6. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 5, wherein the receiver processor automatically returns control to the operating system after expiry of a timer period.

7. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, wherein each receiver processor automatically writes received messages to a sequential log file in the log, and writes the processed messages to a separate file in the log.

8. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 7, wherein each receiver processor further comprises a recovery function for recovery of vehicle messages from the sequential file in event of a failure.

9. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, wherein each receiver processor automatically determines a time stamp and a length value for a received vehicle message, and writes said time stamp and length value to the processed message header.

10. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 9, wherein the decoder writes the time stamp generated by the receiver processor as an attribute of the message object when instantiating the message object.

11. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, wherein each decoder automatically writes messages to a failed file if a memory cache is not available, and automatically transfers messages from the failed file to a memory cache when it becomes available.

12. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, wherein each decoder automatically writes messages to a failed file if a memory cache is not available, and automatically transfers messages from the failed file to a memory cache when it becomes available;

and wherein the decoder instantiates a backlog function object from the service class to write messages to the failed file.

13. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 12, wherein the backlog function object is named according to the receiver port which received the current messages.

14. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, wherein the host comprises a plurality of unitary receivers executing on a single hardware processor and each comprising a port, an associated receiver processor, an associated log, and an associated decoder.

15. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a command centre for communicating with the receiver ports to retrieve vehicle data.

16. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a command centre for communicating with the receiver ports to retrieve vehicle data;

and wherein each receiver processor comprises means for performing the following operations in response to instructions from the command centre;

check if a certain vehicle on-board tracker unit is communicating with the associated receiver port,

send a pass-through command to a vehicle on-board tracker unit through the associated receiver port,

send a configuration command to the receiver processor or decoder,

detect when a vehicle on-board tracker unit connects to the associated receiver port and detect when it disconnects from it

receive a pass-through message from a vehicle on-board tracker unit.

17. The vehicle tracking system central host as claimed in claim 16, wherein receiver processor communicates with the command centre using the TCP protocol.

18. A vehicle tracking system comprising:

the central host as claimed in claim 1;

and

a plurality of on-board vehicle tracker units installed in vehicles, said units comprising means for communicating with the receiver ports of the central host.

19. A computer readable medium comprising software code for performing operations of the vehicle tracking system central host of claim 1 when executing on a digital processor.