Method for identifying events which cover more than one segment using segments

• US 6,618,667 B1
• Filed: 06/14/2001
• Issued: 09/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services Inc. (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mannesmann AG (Vodafone Group PLC)
• Inventors: Van Hauten, Swen, Vieweg, Stefan, Berwanger, Christian, Kriesinger, Ralf
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): To, Tuan C
• Application Number:
  US09/868,085
• Time in Patent Office: 817 Days
• Field of Search: 701/117, 701/210, 701/208, 701/209, 340/905, 340/995, 340/993, 340/907, 340/991, 340/961, 340/904, 340/908, 340/917, 340/825.36, 340/988, 340/934, 455/456, 455/457
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/092 Coding or decoding of the information

Abstract

The transmission of traffic information from a control center to a terminal is optimized with respect to the volume of data to be transmitted by a control center, a terminal, and process for decoding the traffic information pertaining to a highway network transmitted from a traffic control information center to a terminal.

Claims

1. A process for decoding traffic information pertaining to a highway network transmitted from a traffic information control center to a terminal, comprising the steps of:

representing status of at least one segment of the highway network and identity of the segment with the transmitted traffic information;

storing segment data in the terminal representing segments included in the traffic information obtained in the transmission, the data being stored in a manner which also represents travel direction in affected lanes of the segments, the terminal also storing status data representing the status of the segments;

comparing, in the terminal, the segments represented in current traffic information that are transmitted to the terminal with segments represented in older traffic information previously transmitted to and stored in the terminal before the current traffic information; and

concluding that the status data stored with the older traffic information also pertains to the segments included in the current traffic information and preparing these data for output to the terminal upon establishing agreement with respect to identity between two segments of the older traffic information and two of the segments of the current traffic information and also upon establishing agreement with respect to the travel direction in these segments, so that a message can be sent to the terminal which omits details that are filled in by a message of the older traffic information having two segments that match the two segments of the current information thereby reducing a volume of data transmitted.

2. A process according to claim 1, wherein a segment represents at least one of an entire highway and at least some of the lanes in one direction of a highway in both the traffic information control center and the terminal.

3. A process according to claim 1, wherein a segment represents at least one of a section of a highway and a section of at least one of the lanes in one direction of a highway in both the traffic information control center and the terminal.

4. A process according to claim 1, wherein the status data is quantized in at least two levels and represents at least one of speeds and travel times in at least one segment.

5. A process according to claim 1, wherein the status data represent weather information in at least one segment.

6. A process according to claim 1, wherein the status data represent accidents and detours in at least one segment.

7. A process according to claim 1, including transmitting the traffic information by radio.

8. A process according to claim 7, wherein the traffic information is transmitted by mobile radio.

9. A process according to claim 8, wherein traffic information is transmitted by cell broadcast (GSM-CB 3).

10. A process according to claim 9, wherein the transmitted traffic information is different in different mobile radio cells or groups of mobile radio cells, in that the information is broadcast selectively based on local relevance.

11. A process according to claim 1, wherein several older traffic information items are present in the terminal and each is compared with at least one current traffic information item.

12. A process according to claim 1, wherein several current traffic information items are stored in the terminal.

13. A process according to claim 1, including defining status data of an older traffic information item as current traffic information based on additional information in the current and older traffic information pertaining to travel direction when at least two stored segment identities and their sequence in memory are equal.

14. A process according to claim 13, including defining status data of an older traffic information item as pertaining to segments of a current traffic information item when agreement is found for at least one segment identity and information representing the travel direction of the lane in the segment in question, whether transmitted or already present in the terminal.

15. A process according to claim 1, wherein in the transmitted traffic information on a transmission route from the traffic information control center to the terminal, a chain of several segments in sequence in one travel direction is represented by one of its first and its last segment, by a number of segments in the chain, and by a directional value representing a direction in which the chain extends one of from the first segment and from the last segment.

16. A process according to claim 1, wherein current traffic information is transmitted without status data from the control center to the terminal precisely when at least one of the segments present in the current traffic information agrees with a segment in an older traffic information item.

17. A process according to claim 16, wherein a transmission without status data occurs only when at least two segments in the current status data agree with any previously transmitted older status data.

18. A terminal for decoding traffic information pertaining to a highway network transmitted from a traffic information control center, the terminal comprising:

receiver means for receiving traffic information transmitted by radio from the traffic information control center;

a memory for storing transmitted traffic information; and

a comparison device for comparing segments represented in older traffic information with segments represented in current traffic information, the comparison device being operative so that the terminal compares segments represented in current traffic information transmitted to it with segments represented in older traffic information transmitted and stored in the terminal before the current traffic information, whereby upon establishing that two of the segments of the current traffic information are the same as two segments of an older traffic information item and that travel directions are also the same in the compared segments, the status data stored for the older traffic information is defined as pertaining to the segments of the current traffic information and made available as output for a terminal user.

19. A terminal according to claim 18, wherein the receiver is a radio receiver.

20. A terminal according to claim 19, wherein the radio receiver is an RDS-TMC receiver.

21. A terminal according to claim 18, wherein the receiver is a mobile radio receiver for decoding information transmitted by mobile radio.

22. A traffic information control center for decoding traffic information way network, comprising:

a transmitter for transmitting traffic information;

a memory for storing traffic information to be transmitted; and

a traffic information packet generator operative so that traffic information currently to be transmitted by the transmitter is derived from segment information designating segments of a highway network without any status information pertaining to traffic in these segments when the status information pertaining to two of these segments was already contained in a previously transmitted older traffic information item, the segment data of which represent two segments which are also included in the current traffic information item, whereas the packet generator otherwise includes the status data of the affected segments in the traffic information currently being transmitted.