Dynamically load balancing date transmission using one or more access points

• US 8,363,102 B1
• Filed: 10/13/2006
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SF Mobile-Vision Incorporated
• Original Assignee: L-3 Communications Mobile - Vision Incorporated (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kessel, Kurt A., Kadoch, Christopher Allen
• Primary Examiner(s): Blair, Douglas
• Assistant Examiner(s): AILES, BENJAMIN A
• Application Number:
  US11/581,228
• Time in Patent Office: 2,300 Days
• Field of Search: 348/143, 348/148
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

Dynamic load balancing of network traffic is achieved using one or more access points by using a server-centric approach where rules are applied to attributes and characteristics observed by the server which form a profile of wireless clients accessing the network, such as in-car video systems. In various illustrative examples, priorities are assigned to in-car video systems and data files stored therein to which the server applies rules to responsively invoke commands performed by the in-car video systems to balance the uploading of data files to the server. The commands, when executed, allow high priority data files, or data files from high priority in-car video systems or users to be uploaded first, while lower priority data files or users are put on hold. In other illustrative examples, in-car video systems are commanded by the server or forced to roam between access points having overlapping coverage but operating on different non-interfering channels.

Claims

1. A method for load balancing traffic between a server and a plurality of in-car video systems over a communications network, the method comprising the steps of:

maintaining a profile for an in-car video system that accesses the communications network for uploading data to the server disposed on the communications network, the maintaining including scanning metadata associated with each of one or more individual data files stored in a data store that is operatively coupled to the in-car video system, the metadata including at least two of GPS coordinates, user name, vehicle identifier, vehicle priority identifier, in-car video system identifier, data file priority, vehicle speed, or status of emergency equipment;

applying one or more rules from a load balancing rule set to the profile; and

sending an executable command to the in-car video system if the profile meets the one or more rules in the load balancing rule set, the command instructing the in-car video system to differentiate among the individual data files stored in the in-car video system for prioritized uploading to the server.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the maintaining is performed dynamically to thereby track changes in the profile for the in-car video system over a time interval.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the data store is disposed in a video recording device.

4. The method of claim 3 in which the video recording device is one of VCR or DVR.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the one or more rules include at least one rule that instructs the in-car video system to upload a highest priority data file before uploading other data files.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the one or more rules include at least one rule that commands the in-car video system to upload a data file only if no in-car video systems with higher priority are accessing the access point.

7. The method of claim 1 in which the one or more rules include at least one rule that commands the in-car video system to upload a data file associated with an incident before uploading a data file associated with background recording.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the one or more rules include at least one rule that commands the wireless client to upload an oldest data file before uploading other data files.

9. The method of claim 1 in which the implementing comprises switching transmitting frequency to thereby upload to a second wireless access point.

10. The method of claim 1 in which the implementing comprises holding uploading until a command is received to begin uploading or resume uploading.

11. A hardware-based server arranged for use in a communications network that includes a wireless access point, comprising:

a controller;

an interface couplable to the wireless access point that is accessible by a wireless client disposed in an in-car video system for receiving data from the in-car video system, the received data comprising metadata which includes at least two of GPS coordinates, user name, vehicle identifier, vehicle priority identifier, in-car video system identifier, data file priority, vehicle speed, or status of emergency equipment; and

a non-transitory program store containing programming instructions that are executed by the controller to implement a rules engine for generating a load balancing command to the in-car video system responsively to the received data from the wireless client, the command instructing the in-car video system to differentiate among individual data files stored in the in-car video system for prioritized uploading to the hardware-based server, the differentiation utilizing the metadata.

12. The hardware-based server of claim 11 further including a user interface for facilitating interaction with the rules engine to thereby enable user-selection of one or more rules that are used to generate the load balancing command.

13. The hardware-based server of claim 11 in which the programming instructions are further arranged to implement a scanning functionality that, when executed by the controller, performs scanning of metadata associated with data files stored on the in-car video system, the scanned metadata being included in the received data from the in-car video system.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors disposed in an electronic device, perform a method comprising the steps of:

dynamically scanning attributes of each of a plurality of in-car video systems that are in-range of a local area network including one or more access points, the scanned attributes comprising metadata which includes at least two of GPS coordinates, user name, vehicle identifier, vehicle priority identifier, in-car video system identifier, data file priority, vehicle speed, or status of emergency equipment; and

load balancing data from each of the plurality of in-car video systems according to a set of rules that are applied to the attributes, the load balancing comprising establishing priority of one of an in-car video system, a user of the in-car video system, or a file stored on the in-car video system when accessing the local area network to upload evidentiary data captured by the in-car video system and issuing an executable command to instruct the in-car video system to differentiate among individual data files stored in the in-car video system for uploading responsively to the established priority.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 in which the attributes include identities of the in-car video systems.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 in which the attributes include data related to video evidence captured and stored by an in-car video system.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 in which the data is metadata.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 in which the metadata is selected from one of date, time, location, GPS coordinates, user name, vehicle identifier, vehicle speed, status of emergency equipment, duration of video, duration of audio, or other data which describes or is otherwise associated with the video evidence.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 in which the load balancing comprises selecting an in-car video system to roam from a first access point to a second access point.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 in which the roaming is implemented by sending a command to instruct the in-car video system to switch from a first wireless communication channel to a second wireless communication channel.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 in which the roaming is forced by refraining from acknowledging a data frame received from an in-car video system.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 in which the set of rules invokes a method for load balancing by first downloading data files that are designated with higher priority before downloading data files designated with lower priority.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22 in which data files are designated with a priority through use of a user interface operatively coupled to an in-car video system.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 in which the set of rules invokes a method for load balancing by first downloading data files from an in-car video system having higher priority before downloading data files from another in car video system having lower priority.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 in which the set of rules invokes a method for load balancing by first downloading data files having an earlier recording time before downloading data files having a later recording time.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 in which the set of rules invokes a method for load balancing by first downloading data files having higher evidentiary value before downloading data files having a lower evidentiary value.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 in which the set of rules invokes a method for load balancing by first downloading data files representing recorded incidents before downloading data files representing background recording.

28. An in-car video system that is mountable in a vehicle, comprising:

A hardware-based video recorder for recording video captured by a camera disposed in the vehicle;

a wireless network interface arranged to link to a wireless access point in a communications network so that at least recorded video is transferable to a server coupled to the communications network; and

a non-transitory medium on which computer code is stored, the computer code comprising a) a first code set for receiving, over the wireless network interface, a command from the server providing transmitting instructions to the in-car video system, the command instructing the in-car video system to differentiate among individual data files stored in the in-car video system for uploading according to a priority established by the server, the differentiation utilizing metadata that includes at least two of GPS coordinates, user name, vehicle identifier, vehicle priority identifier, in-car video system identifier, data file priority, vehicle speed, or status of emergency equipment, and b) a second code set for transmitting the at least recorded video to the wireless access point according to the transmitting instructions.

29. The in-car video system of claim 28 in which the transmitting the at least recorded video is performed in accordance with IEEE 802.11.

30. The in-car video system of claim 28 in which the transmitting the at least recorded video is performed in accordance with one of IEEE 802.11(a), IEEE 802.11(b) or IEEE 802.11(g).

31. A method for deploying a plurality of access points in a communications network, each access point in the plurality being arranged to communicate with one or more in-car video systems over a plurality of channels, the method comprising the steps of:

arranging at least two access points so that at least two non-interfering channels are available within a deployment area that is accessible by the one or more in-car video systems; and

load balancing data uploaded from the one or more in-car video systems by controlling the uploading across the at least two access points, the controlling comprising sending an executable command to the one or more in-car video systems to instruct the in-car video systems to differentiate among individual data files stored in the in-car video system for uploading according to a priority established by a server that is operatively coupled to the at least two access points, the differentiation utilizing metadata that includes at least two of GPS coordinates, user name, vehicle identifier, vehicle priority identifier, in-car video system identifier, data file priority, vehicle speed, or status of emergency equipment.

32. The method of claim 31 in which the at least two access points communicate over channels that are compliant with IEEE 802.11(g).

33. The method of claim 31 in which the at least two access points communicate over channels that are compliant with IEEE 802.11(b).

34. The method of claim 31 in which a first one of the at least two access points communicates over a channel that is compliant with IEEE 802.11(b) or IEEE 802.11(g) and a second of the at least two access points communicates over a channel that is compliant with IEEE 802.1 1 (a).

35. The method of claim 31 in which the deployment area is a parking facility, the parking facility being selected from one of parking lot or parking garage.