SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SHIPPING MANAGEMENT IN A NETWORK OF MOVING THINGS

• US 20170086011A1
• Filed: 08/24/2016
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veniam Inc.
• Original Assignee: Veniam Inc.
• Inventors: Neves, Filipe, Lopes, Diogo
• Granted Patent: US 9,648,446 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10861 sensing of data fields affixed to objects or articles, e.g. coded labels postal sorting B07C3/14, conveying articles B65G47/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Systems and methods for shipping management in a network of moving things. As non-limiting examples, various aspects of this disclosure provide systems and methods for integrating sensors, mobile access points, and/or the network of moving things with shipping container management systems (e.g., port management systems, train management systems, trucking management systems, etc.).

Claims

1. A mobile access point (MAP) comprising:

at least one module comprising electronic circuitry and being operative to, at least;

establish communication links directly with other mobile access points;

establish communication links directly with sensors positioned along a travel route of the MAP, wherein the MAP is on-board a vehicle and the sensors positioned along the travel route of the MAP are not on-board the vehicle;

collect shipping container-related sensor data from the sensors; and

communicate information related to the collected shipping container-related sensor data to a second system.

2. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is other than a vehicle that moves shipping containers.

3. The mobile access point of claim 2, wherein:

the vehicle comprises a public transportation vehicle; and

the at least one module is operative to provide Internet access to public passengers of the public transportation vehicle.

4. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the second system comprises a port controller.

5. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the second system comprises a second mobile access point (MAP), and wherein the second MAP is on-board a land vehicle and provides Internet access.

6. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is operative to select at least one of a plurality of metropolitan area networks over manners in which to communicate the information to the second system.

7. The mobile access point of claim 6, wherein the plurality of metropolitan area networks comprises:

a first metropolitan area network comprising a non-cellular vehicle communication network comprising a plurality of mobile access points and a plurality of fixed access points; and

a second metropolitan area network comprising a cellular communication network comprising a plurality of cellular base stations.

8. The mobile access point of claim 7, wherein the at least one module is operative to select at least one of a plurality of manners in which to communicate the information to the second system, the plurality of manners comprising:

a first manner comprising immediately communicating the information to the second system via the cellular communication network; and

a second manner comprising communicating the information to the second system in a delay tolerant manner via the non-cellular vehicle communication network.

9. The mobile access point of claim 6, wherein the at least one module is operative to select the at least one of the plurality of metropolitan area networks based, at least in part, on a value of the collected shipping container-related sensor data.

10. The mobile access point of claim 9, wherein the at least one module is operative to select the at least one of a plurality of metropolitan area networks based, at least in part, on whether the value is outside of a range of acceptable values.

11. The mobile access point of claim 6, wherein the at least one module is operative to select the at least one of the plurality of metropolitan area networks based, at least in part, on a list comprising shipping container identities.

12. The mobile access point of claim 6, wherein the at least one module is operative to select the at least one of the plurality of metropolitan area networks based, at least in part, on time-of-day and/or day-of-week.

13. The mobile access point of claim 6, wherein the at least one module is operative to:

determine a priority of the information; and

select the at least one of the plurality of metropolitan area networks based, at least in part, on the determined priority.

14. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the collected shipping container-related sensor data comprises temperature information.

15. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the collected shipping container-related sensor data comprises location information.

16. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is operative to communicate information identifying a shipping container with which a communication link could not be established to the second system.

17. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the communicated information comprises information identifying a shipping container corresponding to collected shipping container-related sensor data having a value that is different from an expected value.

18. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is operative to:

establish communication links with second sensors along the travel route of the MAP, wherein the second sensors are not on-board the vehicle;

collect second sensor data from the second sensors that is unrelated to shipping; and

communicate second information related to the collected second sensor data in a second manner different from a first manner in which the information related to the collected shipping container-related sensor data is communicated.

19. The mobile access point of claim 1, wherein the at least one module is operative to maintain a VoIP call with a personal communication device.

20. A mobile access point (MAP) comprising:

at least one module comprising electronic circuitry and being operative to, at least;

establish communication links directly with other mobile access points;

while the MAP is moving;

establish communication links directly with stationary sensors positioned along a travel route of the MAP; and

collect shipping container-related sensor data from the stationary sensors; and

analyze the collected shipping container-related sensor data to identify at least one action to perform.

21. The mobile access point of claim 20, wherein the at least one module is operative to analyze the collected shipping container-related sensor data to determine whether to communicate information related to the collected shipping container-related sensor data to a second system.

22. The mobile access point of claim 20, wherein the at least one module is operative to analyze at least the collected shipping container-related sensor data to select at least one of a plurality of independent communication networks over which to communicate information related to the collected shipping container-related sensor data to a second system.

23. The mobile access point of claim 20, wherein the at least one module is operative to analyze at least the collected shipping container-related sensor data to determine whether to modify a shipping container movement plan.

24. The mobile access point of claim 20, wherein the at least one module is operative to:

receive a shipping container movement plan prior to collecting the shipping container-related sensor data from the sensors; and

modify the shipping container movement plan in real-time based, at least in part, on the collected shipping container-related sensor data.

25. A mobile access point (MAP) comprising:

at least one module comprising electronic circuitry and being operative to, at least;

while a vehicle carrying the MAP is moving;

establish communication links directly with other mobile access points;

establish first communication links directly with first sensors positioned along a travel route of the MAP, where the first sensors are not on-board the vehicle;

collect first shipping container-related sensor data from the first sensors;

communicate the collected first shipping container-related sensor data to a second system via a first communication network;

establish second communication links directly with second sensors positioned on-board the vehicle;

collect second shipping container-related sensor data from the second sensors;

communicate the collected second shipping container-related sensor data to the second system via a second communication network independent of the first communication network;

receive data collection control information while the MAP is traveling on the travel route; and

adjust how the shipping container-related sensor data is being collected based, at least in part, on the received data collection control information.

26. The mobile access point of claim 25, wherein the at least one module is operable to receive the data collection control information directly from another mobile access point of a vehicle that is unrelated to transporting cargo and/or public passengers.

27. The mobile access point of claim 25, wherein the at least one module is operative to receive the data collection control information from a port controller.

28. The mobile access point of claim 25, wherein the at least one module is operative to adjust how the at least one module collects the shipping container-related sensor data, at least in part, on the collected shipping container-related sensor data.