OPTIMIZING WIRELESS NETWORKING USING A VIRTUAL GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM OVERLAY

• US 20190320328A1
• Filed: 04/12/2019
• Published: 10/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Phantom Auto Inc., Steeringz, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Phantom Auto Inc.
• Inventors: Magzimof, Shay, Parunakian, David
• Granted Patent: US 11,006,282 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/22 Traffic simulation tools or models
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0226 based on location or mobility handoff or reselection H04W36/00; mobile application services making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0289 Congestion control load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections

Abstract

In a connected vehicle environment, network connection parameters such as a network congestion window and bit rate are automatically adjusted dependent on a location of a vehicle in order to optimize network performance. A geospatial database stores learned relationships between network performance of a connected vehicle at different physical locations when configured in accordance with different network parameters. The vehicle can then adjust its network parameters dynamically dependent on its location. A vehicle may maintain multiple connections to different networks concurrently for transmitting duplicate data of a data stream, with the vehicle independently adjusting parameters associated with different networks to optimize performance.

Claims

1. A method for controlling network parameters of a vehicle, the method comprising:

establishing, by the vehicle, a first connection to a first network;

predicting based on sensed information of the vehicle, a predicted future state of the vehicle including future position information;

obtaining first network performance data of the first network associated with the predicted future state of the vehicle;

determining, based on the first network performance data, first network parameters associated with the first connection to the first network that result in a first target predicted quality score associated with the first connection;

configuring a communication system of the vehicle according to the first network parameters; and

transmitting, by the communication system, a first data stream over the first network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing, by the vehicle, a second connection to a second network concurrently with the first connection to the first network;

obtaining second network performance data of the second network associated with the predicted future state of the vehicle;

determining, based on the second network performance data, second network parameters associated with the second connection to the second network that result in a second target predicted quality score associated with the second connection;

configuring the communication system of the vehicle according to the second network parameters; and

transmitting, by the communication system, a second data stream over the second network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second data stream includes data redundant to the first data stream.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first network parameters comprises:

determining, from a geospatial database, a plurality of predicted candidate quality scores resulting from a range of candidate network parameters; and

identifying the first network parameters from the candidate network parameters that results in the first target predicted quality score.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first network parameters comprises:

obtaining a first predicted performance value associated with a first performance attribute based on the predicted future state of the vehicle;

obtaining a second predicted performance value associated with a second performance attribute based on the predicted future state of the vehicle; and

applying a predefined utility function to the first predicted performance value and the second predicted performance value to generate the first target predicted quality score.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring performance of the first network connection;

determining if the measured performance sufficiently matches performance associated with the first target predicted quality score;

responsive to the measured performance not sufficiently matching, recording an anomaly with respect to the first performance data retrieved from a geospatial database.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring performance of the first network connection;

determining if the measured performance sufficiently matches performance associated with the first target predicted quality score;

responsive to the measured performance sufficiently matching, recording a successful update of the first network parameters.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network performance data in a geospatial database is obtained according to a data collection process comprising obtaining network performance data for a population of vehicles operating at different locations while applying a range of different network parameters.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network parameters comprise at least one of a congestion window value and a bit rate.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first network parameters comprises:

receiving one or more functions mapping the predicted future state of the vehicle to a set of candidate quality scores for a range of network parameters;

applying the one or more functions to the predicted future state of the vehicle; and

identifying network parameters associated with first target predicted quality score selected from the set of candidate quality scores.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for controlling network parameters of a vehicle, the instructions when executed by a processor causing the processor to perform steps including:

establishing, by the vehicle, a first connection to a first network;

predicting based on sensed information of the vehicle, a predicted future state of the vehicle including future position information;

obtaining first network performance data of the first network associated with the predicted future state of the vehicle;

determining, based on the first network performance data, first network parameters associated with the first connection to the first network that result in a first target predicted quality score associated with the first connection;

configuring a communication system of the vehicle according to the first network parameters; and

transmitting, by the communication system, a first data stream over the first network.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the instructions when executed further causing the processor to perform steps including:

establishing, by the vehicle, a second connection to a second network concurrently with the first connection to the first network;

obtaining second network performance data of the second network associated with the predicted future state of the vehicle;

determining, based on the second network performance data, second network parameters associated with the second connection to the second network that result in a second target predicted quality score associated with the second connection;

configuring the communication system of the vehicle according to the second network parameters; and

transmitting, by the communication system, a second data stream over the second network.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the second data stream includes data redundant to the first data stream.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein determining the first network parameters comprises:

determining, from a geospatial database, a plurality of predicted candidate quality scores resulting from a range of candidate network parameters; and

identifying the first network parameters from the candidate network parameters that results in the first target predicted quality score.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein determining the first network parameters comprises:

obtaining a first predicted performance value associated with a first performance attribute based on the predicted future state of the vehicle;

obtaining a second predicted performance value associated with a second performance attribute based on the predicted future state of the vehicle; and

applying a predefined utility function to the first predicted performance value and the second predicted performance value to generate the first target predicted quality score.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the instructions when executed further causing the processor to perform steps including:

measuring performance of the first network connection;

determining if the measured performance sufficiently matches performance associated with the first target predicted quality score;

responsive to the measured performance not sufficiently matching, recording an anomaly with respect to the first performance data retrieved from a geospatial database.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the instructions when executed further causing the processor to perform steps including:

measuring performance of the first network connection;

determining if the measured performance sufficiently matches performance associated with the first target predicted quality score;

responsive to the measured performance sufficiently matching, recording a successful update of the first network parameters.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the first network performance data in a geospatial database is obtained according to a data collection process comprising obtaining network performance data for a population of vehicles operating at different locations while applying a range of different network parameters.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the first network parameters comprise at least one of a congestion window value and a bit rate.

20. A vehicle system comprising:

a drive system;

a plurality of vehicle sensors;

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for controlling network parameters of a vehicle, the instructions when executed by the processor causing the processor to perform steps including;

establishing, by the vehicle, a first connection to a first network;

predicting based on sensed information of the vehicle, a predicted future state of the vehicle including future position information;

obtaining first network performance data of the first network associated with the predicted future state of the vehicle;

determining, based on the first network performance data, first network parameters associated with the first connection to the first network that result in a first target predicted quality score associated with the first connection;

configuring a communication system of the vehicle according to the first network parameters; and

transmitting, by the communication system, a first data stream over the first network.