GEOCAST-BASED SITUATION AWARENESS

• US 20140038511A1
• Filed: 07/31/2012
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hall, Robert J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,071,451 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/3.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/71 Wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1845 broadcast or multicast in a specific location, e.g. geocast protocols for adapting network applications to user terminal location H04L67/52; services specially adapted for wireless communication networks making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/023 Limited or focused flooding to selected areas of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/20 based on geographic position or location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/10 using broadcasted information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Geocast-based situation awareness utilizing a scalable, distributed ad hoc geocast protocol as a communication primitive, may provide a field common operating picture (FCOP) for providing location tracking, movement history, telemetry, and messaging in near real time to all operators in a scenario. Information may be transferred using a query/response geocast message protocol. Caching on devices may be utilized to gain scalability. A query message may have a payload containing a type indication and a header containing a description of a geocast region of intended reception, which may comprise the monitored region, the location of the monitorer, or any appropriate combination thereof. Response messages may be sent from devices located in the monitored region to an area containing the location of the sender of a query. A response message may contain monitored information, such as current location, telemetry data, and/or recent movement history, or the like.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a device, a geocast message;

determining, by the device, if memory of the device comprises a message that was sent to a region containing a geographical source of the received geocast message;

when it is determined that the memory of the device does not comprise a message was sent to the geographical region containing the geographical source of the received geocast message, composing, by the device, a response message; and

geocasting, by the device, the composed response message.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

clearing from the memory of the device all messages that were created prior to a predetermined amount of time earlier than a time at which the geocast message was received.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the composed response message comprises at least one of:

a location of a device;

telemetry data;

a current time;

a velocity of a device;

or

a data item indicating temporal recency of another data item.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the composed response message comprises a movement history of the device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the received geocast message comprises at least one of a query geocast message or a response geocast message.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording, in the memory of the device, at least a portion of the received geocast message.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording, in the memory of the device, at least a portion of the composed response message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

geocasting the composed response message comprises geocasting the composed response message to a target geographic region;

when a location of the geographic source of the received geocast message lies within a geographic region of intended reception of the received geocast message, the target geographic region comprises the geographic region of intended reception of the received geocast message; and

when the location of the geographic source of the received geocast message does not lie within the geographic region of intended reception of the received geocast message, the target geographic region comprises a region centered proximate to the location of the source of the received geocast message.

9. A device comprising:

memory having executable instruction stored thereon; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to execute the executable instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving a geocast query message;

determining if the memory comprises a message that was sent to a region containing a geographical source of the received geocast message;

when it is determined that the memory does not comprise a message was sent to the geographical region containing the geographical source of the received geocast message, composing a response message; and

geocasting the composed response message.

10. The device of claim 9, the operations further comprising:

clearing from the memory of the device all messages that were created prior to a predetermined amount of time earlier than a time at which the geocast message was received.

11. The device of claim 9 wherein the composed response message comprises at least one of:

a location of a device;

telemetry data;

a current time;

a velocity of a device;

or

a data item indicating temporal recency of another data item.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the composed response message comprises a movement history of the device.

13. The device of claim 9, further comprising recording, in the memory at least a portion of the composed response message.

14. The device of claim 9, wherein:

geocasting the composed response message comprises geocasting the composed response message to a target geographic region;

when a location of the geographic source of the received geocast message lies within a geographic region of intended reception of the received geocast message, the target geographic region comprises the geographic region of intended reception of the received geocast message; and

when the location of the geographic source of the received geocast message does not lie within the geographic region of intended reception of the received geocast message, the target geographic region comprises a region centered proximate to the location of the source of the received geocast message.

15. A computer-readable storage medium having a tangible physical structure, the computer-readable storage medium having at least one executable instruction stored thereon that when executed perform operations comprising:

receiving a geocast message;

determining a type of the received geocast message;

responsive to receiving the geocast message and based on the type of the received geocast message, removing from a memory all messages that were created prior to a predetermined amount of time earlier than a time at which the geocast message was received;

subsequent to removing all messages that were created prior to a predetermined amount of time earlier than a time at which the geocast message was received, determining if a message remains in the memory that was sent to a geocast region of the source of the received geocast message; and

when it is determined that a message remains in the memory that was sent to the geocast region of the source of the received geocast message, composing a response message.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the composed response message comprises at least one of a current time, a movement history of the device, or telemetry data sensed by the device.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the type of the received geocast message comprises one of a query geocast message or a response geocast message.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the removing from memory is based on the type of the received geocast message being a query geocast message.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising recording, in the memory of the device, at least a portion of the composed response message.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising:

geocasting the composed response message to a target geographic region, wherein;

when a location of the source of the received geocast message lies within a geographic region of intended reception of the received geocast message, the target geographic region comprises the geographic region of intended reception of the received geocast message; and

when the location of the source of the received geocast message does not lie within the geographic region of intended reception of the received geocast message, the target geographic region comprises a region centered proximate to the location of the source of the received geocast message.