Ad-hoc mobile IP network for intelligent transportation system

• US 8,311,726 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2011
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Patel, Labhesh, Kumar, Sanjeev, Shaffer, Shmuel, Jain, Mukul, Ethier, Randall Paul Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Application Number:
  US13/241,966
• Publication Number:
  US 20120016536A1
• Time in Patent Office: 417 Days
• Field of Search: 701 1- 2, 701117-119
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A method for intelligently managing a transportation network is provided. The method may include providing a roadside apparatus 18 to communicate with nodes 14A to 14D associated with vehicles 12A to 12D in a transportation network, the vehicle nodes being in a neighborhood range of the roadside apparatus. The roadside apparatus may dynamically detect the presence of a node 14A associated with a first vehicle 12A, and establish a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between the roadside apparatus and the first vehicle'"'"'s node. The roadside apparatus 18 receives, in real-time, from the first vehicle'"'"'s node 14A event data of events associated with the first vehicle 12A over the mobile IP network. The roadside apparatus 18 or nodes 14A to 14D may further receive or transmit real-time command data to control subsystems of a vehicle.

Claims

1. A roadside apparatus comprising:

a communication module to

dynamically establish a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between the roadside apparatus and a plurality of vehicle nodes associated with a plurality of respective vehicles within a road transportation network, the vehicle nodes being in neighborhood range of the roadside apparatus, and

receive real-time event data over the mobile IP network from one or more of the plurality of vehicle nodes, the event data being indicative of events associated with the plurality of vehicles;

a traffic analysis module to perform traffic analysis of traffic involving the plurality of vehicles, the traffic analysis being performed based on the real-time event data; and

a control module to send a real-time communication to at least one of the plurality of vehicle nodes via the communication module, responsive to performance of the traffic analysis.

2. The roadside apparatus of claim 1, in which the event data from each of the one or more vehicle nodes comprises the geographic location of the respective vehicle, the velocity of the vehicle, the acceleration of the vehicle, the momentum of the vehicle, a vehicle type of the vehicle, dimension data of the vehicle, radar data, video data or laser range distance data relating to any nearby vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network, or the weight of the vehicle.

3. The roadside apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control module is configured to transmit, via the communication module, real-time command data over the mobile IP network to vehicle subsystems of the at least one vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network, thereby to control the motion of the at least one vehicle.

4. The roadside apparatus of claim 3, in which the vehicle subsystems comprise one or more of a throttle subsystem, a steering subsystem or a brake subsystem.

5. The roadside apparatus of claim 3, wherein the control module is configured to generate real-time command data for a platoon of vehicles that are to move in a similar fashion, and to communicate with the control data to each of the vehicles in the platoon.

6. The roadside apparatus of claim 5, wherein the traffic analysis comprises processing the event data to assess whether the field of view of any vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network is obstructed by another vehicle.

7. The roadside apparatus of claim 1, in which the mobile IP network communication is via the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), Secure RTP (SRTP), Real-Time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) or other real-time wireless technologies.

8. The roadside apparatus of claim 7, in which IP packets of the mobile IP network communication is encapsulated by Wireless mobile WiFi (IEEE 802.11p), mobile WiMax (IEEE 802.16e), Wireless PAN (IEEE 802.15.4), Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (IEEE 802.20), G3.5, or a similar protocol optimized for low latency communication in the wireless environment.

9. The roadside apparatus of claim 8, in which the mobile IP communication provides for quality of service support.

10. A method comprising:

dynamically establishing a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between a roadside apparatus and a plurality of vehicle nodes associated with a plurality of respective vehicles within a road transportation network, the vehicle nodes being in neighborhood range of the roadside apparatus;

receiving, at the roadside apparatus, real-time event data over the mobile IP network from one or more of the plurality of vehicle nodes, the event data being indicative of events associated with the plurality of vehicles;

performing traffic analysis, at the roadside apparatus, of traffic involving the plurality of vehicles, the traffic analysis being performed based on the real-time event data; and

sending a real-time communication from the roadside apparatus to at least one of the plurality of vehicle nodes, responsive to performance of the traffic analysis.

11. The method of claim 10, in which the event data from each of the one or more vehicle nodes comprises the geographic location of the respective vehicle, the velocity of the vehicle, the acceleration of the vehicle, the momentum of the vehicle, a vehicle type of the vehicle, dimension data of the vehicle, radar data, video data or laser range distance data relating to any nearby vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network, or the weight of the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the real-time communication from the roadside apparatus is configured to control vehicle subsystems associated with the at least one vehicle, thereby to control the motion of the at least one vehicle.

13. The method of claim 12, in which the vehicle subsystems comprise one or more of a throttle subsystem, a steering subsystem or a brake subsystem,

14. The method of claim 10, in which the mobile IP network communication is via real-time IP audio and video wireless services technologies having a mission critical nature.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising transferring a data session between the roadside apparatus and a particular vehicle node from the roadside apparatus to a neighboring roadside apparatus.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining a specific neighboring roadside apparatus whose sphere of control a particular vehicle node will next enter, and transferring information regarding the particular vehicle node to the specific neighboring roadside apparatus prior to entry of the particular vehicle node into the sphere of control of the specific roadside apparatus.

17. A system comprising a series of roadside apparatuses installed along a section of a roadway, each roadside apparatus comprising:

a communication module to

dynamically establish a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between the roadside apparatus and a plurality of vehicle nodes associated with a plurality of respective vehicles within a road transportation network, the vehicle nodes being in neighborhood range of the roadside apparatus, and

receive real-time event data over the mobile IP network from one or more of the plurality of vehicle nodes, the event data being indicative of events associated with the plurality of vehicles;

a traffic analysis module to perform traffic analysis of traffic involving the plurality of vehicles,

the traffic analysis being performed based on the real-time event data; and

a control module to send a real-time communication to at least one of the plurality of vehicle nodes via the communication module, responsive to performance of the traffic analysis.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the mobile IP network of each roadside apparatus is configured to include at least one neighboring roadside apparatus.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein each roadside apparatus includes a handover module to transfer to a neighboring roadside apparatus a data session with a particular vehicle node.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the traffic analysis module of a particular roadside apparatus is configured to predict a next neighboring roadside apparatus into whose sphere of control a particular vehicle node will next enter, the particular roadside apparatus further comprising a handover module to transfer information regarding the particular vehicle node to the next neighboring roadside apparatus prior to entry of the particular vehicle node into the sphere of control of the next neighboring roadside apparatus.