Vehicle data services

• US 7,356,389 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2003
• Issued: 04/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: David Richard Lee, William Holst
• Original Assignee: David Richard Lee, William Holst
• Inventors: Holst, William, Lee, David Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CUONG H
• Application Number:
  US10/470,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20050197748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,730 Days
• Field of Search: 455/12.1, 370/343, 701/3, 701/24, 701 35- 36, 244/1.R
• US Class Current: 701/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/4028 the transportation system being an aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/06 Airborne or Satellite Networks space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185

Abstract

A method and devices are described for wirelessly uploading and downloading data to and from a mobile vehicular platform while within range of a coordinated network of base stations that monitor the location of the vehicle and optimize data throughput using any combination of diversity and beam forming adaptive antenna techniques while the vehicle is on the ground or additionally in the case of aircraft, not only on the ground, but also during take-off, climb, en-route, holding, on-approach, touchdown and rollout. Particularly, in describing this art, the intent is to address the aspects of a quantifiable vehicle environment, where the vehicle'"'"'s behavior is predictable, such as in train routes, bus routes, ship dockings and aircraft flight plans.

Claims

1. A vehicle data services communication system for uploading data to a vehicle, said communication system comprising:

an uplink communication path configured for wireless link transmissions of data to at least one vehicle, said communication path including;

a primary network operations center (NOC) communicatively coupleable to the at least one vehicle and having a data source, wherein said NOC manages configuration control and distribution of data contained in said data source;

one or more primary base stations operatively connected to said primary NOC, wherein said primary NOC is adapted to dynamically assign or de-assign said base stations to said at least one vehicle by to allow communication of the data between the primary NOC and said at least one vehicle;

a vehicle Local Area Network (LAN) located in said at least one vehicle and having a plurality of disparate vehicle network devices that can be operatively connected to said primary NOC; and

one or more input and output antenna configurations at vehicle and base station ends of the communication path, wherein said antenna configurations support any number of wireless spread spectrum modulation schemes that can be used to transmit data to said at least one vehicle.

2. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1, wherein the said primary NOC comprises a master control NOC, and wherein other operatively connected communication path components, including said at least one vehicle and said primary base stations, comprise slave devices to said master control NOC.

3. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more primary base stations is in direct communication with said at least one vehicle.

4. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1, further comprising one or more secondary base stations, said secondary base stations not in direct communication with said at least one vehicle until reclassified by said master primary NOC to one of said primary base stations.

5. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more primary base stations are located in micro cell RF coverage areas configured as 802.11 hotspots, each hotspot utilizing a wireless transceiver configured to relay data to vehicles within range by way of said communication path between said primary NOC and said at least one vehicle.

6. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1, wherein said one or more base stations are located in one or more macro cell RF coverage areas configured as 802.16/802.20 Non Line of Sight (NLOS) hotspots.

7. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 6, wherein said base stations provide wireless backhauling capability.

8. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1, wherein said antenna configurations comprise adaptive antenna array antennas or polarization antennas or a combination of both.

30. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1 wherein said vehicle is an authenticated user authorized to receive data from either the primary NOC or one of the base stations, the system further comprising a user authentication storage device operatively coupled to the NOC to store credentials associated with the vehicle and usable to authenticate the vehicle to receive data.

31. The vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1 wherein at least some of said base stations include mobile base stations.

32. The vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1, further comprising:

one or more secondary NOCs operatively coupled to said primary NOC; and

one or more portable network devices operatively coupled to at least one of said secondary NOCs, to said vehicle LAN, or to at least one of said base stations.

33. The vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1 wherein one of said wireless spread spectrum modulation schemes include MIMO OFDM.

38. The vehicle data services communication system according to claim 1 wherein said wireless link transmissions of data to said at least one vehicle include a non-time deterministic transfer of non-time constrained data types.

9. A method for providing a dynamic assignment of one or more base stations to each vehicle associated with a master primary network operation center (NOC), said method comprising:

receiving, at one or more base stations, a polling request from a vehicle for connection to a NOC, said receiving initiating a network authorization protocol between said vehicle and one of said base stations with a strongest Received Signal Strength (RSS) signal;

relaying vehicle user information for user authentication purposes to the primary NOC from said base station with the strongest RSS, including relaying said information through an optimum ground network path using wireless backhauling;

establishing a communication link between the vehicle and the primary NOC if the vehicle is authenticated, including assigning one or more primary base stations in active communication with the vehicle while in a RF coverage area range.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein establishing said communication link between the vehicle and the primary NOC further comprises:

assigning a vehicle user/emergency priority status for the communication link;

predicting a track of the vehicle through RF coverage zones in proximity to the vehicle, including correlating to an RF coverage database having a software updateable statistical database or signal strength map with uploadable or downloadable data;

using past error statistics and correlation with the predicted vehicle track to dynamically adjust and update user session timeout tolerances through low signal strength hotspot areas;

utilizing navigation information from the vehicle in calculating assigning and de-assigning of base stations along the projected vehicle track; and

establishing handoff to a next one or more primary base stations along the predicted vehicle track if a mean value RSS from a next assigned primary base station is increasing and exceeds a current primary base stations'"'"' mean value RSS.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein said navigation information is derived from vehicle located GPS outputs received by said primary NOC.

12. A method according to claim 10, wherein the navigation information is derived from either a GPS or flight plan and flight management computer navigation outputs, and wherein the vehicle comprises an aircraft.

13. A method according to claim 10, wherein assigning a priority status comprises any one or more of:

evaluating network bandwidth traffic between the vehicle and the primary NOC from the one or more primary base stations and from intermediate network nodes operatively connected to said vehicle, and performing adaptive multiple base station broadcasting to said vehicle depending on location of the vehicle and the evaluated network traffic;

categorizing data to be transmitted into a user priority ranking, wherein said user priority ranking includes a plurality of differentiable levels, including public safety, regional, municipal, private vehicle and individual users;

categorizing data to be transmitted into an emergency level priority ranking, wherein said emergency level priority ranking includes a plurality of differentiable levels, including national, regional, municipal, security and surveillance and no emergency;

combining the two-tiered ranking to calculate an overall priority ranking, wherein (I,I) is the highest and (V,V) is the lowest; and

monitoring packet loss and channel traffic to adaptively reassign data channel distribution, multiple transmission, and reception to minimize transfer latencies, wherein said reassignment is dependent on user policy criteria, other traffic priority, and past error statistics.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein categorizing data to be transmitted into the user priority ranking includes configuring transportation session information into a user priority ranking equivalent to the said vehicle priority ranking for a length of a session.

15. A method according to claim 13, wherein evaluating network bandwidth traffic is alternatively tasked between at least one of the primary base stations and the primary NOC.

16. A method according to claim 13, wherein evaluating network bandwidth traffic comprises said assigned one or more primary base stations operating in an ad-hoc infrastructure mode to support multiple output transmissions to the vehicle.

17. A method according to claim 13, wherein evaluating network bandwidth traffic comprises adjusting signal strength and beam focusing when adaptive array antennas with beam focusing provide wireless communication at said assigned one or more primary base stations.

18. A method according to claim 13, wherein evaluating network bandwidth traffic comprises said primary NOC coordinating beam focusing adjustments along the predicted vehicle track using triangulation information from multiple primary base stations as a function of known positions and RSS readings at said base stations to correct for slight vehicle navigation output errors when an on-ground differential GPS system is not available.

19. A vehicle data services communication system for downloading data from a vehicle to one or more primary base stations, said communication system comprising:

a downlink communication path configured for wireless link transmissions of data from at least one vehicle, said communication path including;

means for providing a polling signal for a base station to respond to a request for access to a network having a network operations center (NOC) configured to authenticate vehicle user credentials, said polling signal containing at least vehicle identification information for user identification;

means for communicating with a first responsive base station with a compatible network access protocol;

means for sending priority status to a NOC designated as master wherein said master NOC validates the vehicle and assigns session keys to operatively connected network nodes including clients that are activated in a downlink session to said master NOC; and

means for receiving a timeout tolerance parameter from said master NOC, wherein said parameter is used to bypass re-establishment of handshaking and authentication processes during link loss and during a valid session that provides said data including navigation updates, signal strength measurements, user policy criteria, and past error statistics from disparate devices on the vehicle to the master NOC, wherein said provided data is usable by the master NOC for optimizing data distribution to the vehicle.

20. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 19, wherein said data provided by the vehicle further comprises automatic or remotely initiated data transfer of vehicle Maintenance Operations Quality Assurance (MOQA) data.

21. A vehicle data services communication system according to claim 19, wherein said data provided by the vehicle further comprises automatic or remotely initiated data transfer of vehicle Video Operations Quality Assurance (VOQA) data.

39. The vehicle data services communication system of claim 19 wherein said wireless link transmissions of data from said at least one vehicle include a non-time deterministic transfer of non-time constrained data types.

22. A vehicle data services apparatus for operatively connecting at least one vehicle local area network (LAN) to a base station for controlled data transfers, said apparatus comprising:

means for uploading data from on-ground network nodes to a vehicle LAN device, wherein said uploading is automatically initiated or manually initiated under control of a network operation center (NOC);

means for downloading data to the on-ground network nodes from the vehicle LAN device, wherein said downloading is automatically initiated or manually initiated under control of the NOC; and

means for bridging data from a plurality of dissimilar vehicle LANs, wherein said bridging is automatically initiated or manually initiated under control of the NOC.

23. An apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said means for bridging includes FireWire LAN devices and associated Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs).

24. An apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said means for bridging includes MIL-1553 bus devices and associated APIs.

25. An apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said means for bridging includes RS-232/RS422 bus devices and associated APIs.

26. An apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said means for bridging includes USB devices and associated APIs.

27. An apparatus according to claim 22 wherein said means for bridging comprises at least one bus device and an associated API.

28. An apparatus according to claim 22, further comprising means for routing data to and from on-vehicle and on-ground network nodes, wherein said routing includes video and audio codecs processing, data encryption, data sequencing for multiplexed or multiple transmissions if a plurality of antennae are used for communication, user certificate presentation, user policy information, and session key data packet tagging.

29. An apparatus according to claim 22, further comprising means for storing data in the vehicle, wherein said downloading includes said bridging prior to storing data originating from the dissimilar vehicle LANs.

34. A vehicle data services communication system to communicate information data between a vehicle and a network location, the system comprising:

a vehicle network device located in the vehicle and which can be communicatively coupled to a plurality of disparate units in the vehicle that respectively provide data; and

a communication device coupled to the vehicle network device to wirelessly send the data provided by the units to a network operations center (NOC) by using a wireless spread spectrum technique to send the data to the NOC,

wherein the vehicle network device is able to generate a polling signal to poll at least one of a plurality of base stations communicatively coupled to the NOC to request access to the NOC, the communication device further being able to send the data to the NOC by progressively establishing a wireless communication with and sending the data to at least some of the base stations within a wireless range of the vehicle that are assigned to the vehicle by the NOC, and

wherein the vehicle network device is further able provide upload data, sent from at least one of the base stations assigned to the vehicle by the NOC, to one of the plurality of disparate units in the vehicle.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein at least one of the base stations is a wireless mobile base station.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein the vehicle is an aircraft, and wherein the communication device can send the data to the NOC by sending the data during flight of the aircraft in response to a request for the data from the NOC.

37. The system of claim 34 wherein the vehicle network device is able to perform an authorization process with a polled base station associated with a strongest received signal strength (RSS), the vehicle network device further being able to progressively establish wireless communication from a current base station to a next base station within the wireless range if a mean RSS of the next base station is increasing and exceeds a mean RSS of the current base station.

40. The system of claim 34 wherein said spread spectrum technique to send said data to said NOC includes a non-time deterministic transfer of non-time constrained data types.