VEHICULAR FLEET MONITORING VIA PUBLIC WIRELESS COMMUNICATION ACCESS POINTS USING COMPRESSED DIAGNOSTIC DATA SETS AND REDUCED LATENCY TRANSMISSIONS
First Claim
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1. A method of tracking a vehicle using a system and method for vehicular fleet monitoring, said method comprising steps of:
- determining a location of a vehicle using a global positioning system;
determining a time at which the location of the vehicle is determined;
determining at least one operational parameter of the vehicle at the determined time;
creating a data file comprising a header and at least one data pair, said at least one data pair comprising the determined location of the vehicle and the corresponding at least one operational parameter, said header including a vehicle identifier and a tracking unit identifier;
determining when an open compatible wireless network connection with Internet access is available; and
accessing the open compatible wireless network connection and transmitting the data file to a remote computer via the Internet using a compatible file transfer protocol.
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Abstract
A vehicular monitoring system is configured to acquire GPS position data and vehicular operating data, write the data to a file, and detect and utilize public wireless communication (e.g., 802.11x/WiFi) Internet access points to communicate the file containing the acquired GPS position data and vehicular operating data to a remote computer. Compressed diagnostic data sets and reduced latency wireless transmissions are utilized to facilitate communication.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of tracking a vehicle using a system and method for vehicular fleet monitoring, said method comprising steps of:
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determining a location of a vehicle using a global positioning system; determining a time at which the location of the vehicle is determined; determining at least one operational parameter of the vehicle at the determined time; creating a data file comprising a header and at least one data pair, said at least one data pair comprising the determined location of the vehicle and the corresponding at least one operational parameter, said header including a vehicle identifier and a tracking unit identifier; determining when an open compatible wireless network connection with Internet access is available; and accessing the open compatible wireless network connection and transmitting the data file to a remote computer via the Internet using a compatible file transfer protocol. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A vehicle tracking unit comprising
a microcontroller, a GPS receiver with a corresponding GPS antenna, a wireless network transceiver with a corresponding wireless network antenna, a memory, a power supply and one or more interfaces operably coupled by a bus, said microcontroller being adapted to provide supervisory logic control over the tracking unit, control the GPS receiver and wireless network transceiver, receive input from the GPS receiver, wireless transceiver and interfaces, and write to and read from the memory; -
said GPS receiver being adapted to receive GPS satellite signals and calculate position and time based thereon; said one or more interfaces including a means for communicatively coupling the microcontroller to a vehicle Electronic Control Unit and receiving operational data therefrom; said bus being adapted to enable transfer of data and power between components; and said wireless network transceiver being adapted to detect and transmit GPS and operational data to a remote computer via an open wireless access point with an Internet connection using a determined file transfer protocol; said microcontroller being configured to determine a location of the vehicle using GPS receiver, determine a time at which the location of the vehicle is determined, determining at least one operational data of the vehicle at the determined time, and create a data file comprising a header and at least one data pair, said at least one data pair comprising the determined location of the vehicle and the corresponding at least one operational data, said header including a vehicle identifier and a tracking unit identifier;
determine when an open compatible wireless network connection with Internet access is available using said wireless network transceiver; and
accessing the open compatible wireless network connection and transmitting the data file, using said wireless network transceiver, to a remote computer via the Internet using a compatible file transfer protocol. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification