Communication system and method having communication data dividing and transmitting functions

• US 7,136,917 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2002
• Issued: 11/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Kawai, Shigeki, Sawada, Manabu
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M.
• Application Number:
  US10/100,052
• Publication Number:
  US 20020152217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,701 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/2, 707/3, 707/6, 709217-219, 709200-203, 709223-227, 455/441, 455/436, 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/456.5, 455/456.6, 455/63.2
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• 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 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 Backbone network devices

Abstract

In a communication system, a content server reads required data from a content database and transmits the data by packet communications over public communication lines, and a network management server receives and stores the required information from the public communication lines. The network management server sends the temporarily stored data to plural transmitter stations. Each transmitter station has a corresponding dividing device. Each dividing device receives and relays to the linked transmitter station only the amount of data required for transmission to the linked transmitter station. The remaining data is simply passed by the dividing device to the next dividing device without processing the data in any way.

Claims

1. A communication system comprising:

a content database for storing content data therein;

a content server for reading a part of the content data as read data from the content database in response to a request from a mobile body and transmitting the read data in packets over a public network;

a network management server for temporarily storing in a memory and managing a distribution of the read data transmitted over the public network;

a plurality of transmitter stations for transmitting the read data to the mobile body; and

a plurality of dividing devices arranged in series and linked with the plurality of transmitter stations, respectively, for receiving the read data from the network management server and relaying the read data from one dividing device to a next dividing device so that the read data is dividedly transmitted from the plurality of transmitter stations, the one dividing device dividing out a part of the read data for transmission from one transmitter station linked therewith and relaying a remaining part of the read data to the next dividing device.

2. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein an amount of the read data temporarily stored by the network management server is an amount of data to be captured by the dividing devices and distributed to the transmitter stations.

3. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein the network management server instructs the content server what data to read and transmit over the network.

4. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein each packet of the read data from the content server is smaller than the part of the read data divided out by the dividing devices, and the part contains plural packets.

5. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein only a first of the dividing devices is connected to the network management server.

6. A communication system as in claim 1, wherein a first and a last of the dividing devices are connected to the network management server, and the network management server and the dividing devices form a communication loop.

7. A communication system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the transmitter stations are located along a road and distanced from each other so that the mobile body receives the read data part by part from the transmitter stations while moving along the road.