Ground system for vehicle data distribution

• US 9,088,613 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2012
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gogo Business Aviation LLC (GOGO Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Gogo LLC (GOGO Incorporated)
• Inventors: Wahler, Ronald A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US13/675,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20140136730A1
• Time in Patent Office: 980 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709223-229, 709241-242, 709/250
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• 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 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

Techniques for delivering data or information to a vehicle include a ground based data distribution system that has a ground based determination engine and port networks, and is communicatively connected to access networks. The ground based determination engine determines a content of the data to be delivered to the vehicle, and/or determines one or more predicted locations of the vehicle. The ground based system causes the data to be delivered to the one or more predicted locations, and, at a particular predicted location, the delivered data is transferred to the vehicle, such as by using an information distribution device that is on-board the vehicle. Determination of the data content and of the one or more predicted locations may be performed while the vehicle is en route or is at a port. Data delivery may occur while the vehicle is en route or is at a port.

Claims

1. An information distribution system for distributing information to a vehicle, comprising:

a plurality of computing devices in communicative connection, at least a first subset of the plurality of computing devices having connections to wireless communication channels for communicating with an on-board data distribution device fixedly connected to the vehicle, and at a second subset of the plurality of the computing devices corresponding to respective ports from which vehicles depart and at which vehicles arrive; and

a first computing device of the at least the first subset of the plurality of computing devices configured to;

receive, via a respective connection to a respective wireless communication channel, information from the vehicle at the first computing device after the vehicle has left an origination port and before the vehicle has arrived at a destination port at which the vehicle is to arrive, and

cause data to be routed to a second computing device of the second subset of the plurality of computing devices, the second computing device corresponding to the destination port, and at least one of the data to be routed or the second computing device determined based on the information received from the vehicle.

2. The information distribution system of claim 1, wherein the destination port is a predicted destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive.

3. The information distribution system of claim 1, wherein the first computing device is further configured to cause the data to be routed to more than one computing device included in the second subset of the plurality of computing devices.

4. The information distribution system of claim 1, wherein the destination port of the vehicle is determined by at least one of the first computing device or another computing device included in the plurality of computing devices after the vehicle has departed an origination location and before the vehicle has completed a travel route.

5. The information distribution system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is an airborne vehicle, a water-borne vehicle, or a land-borne vehicle.

6. The information distribution system of claim 1, wherein the information received from the vehicle corresponds to at least one of:

equipment fixedly connected to the vehicle;

cargo aboard the vehicle;

a travel route of the vehicle;

a request generated by a least one of a passenger aboard the vehicle, a crew member aboard the vehicle, or a remote user of the information distribution system;

or

information generated by a least one of the passenger, the crew member, or the remote user.

7. The information distribution system of claim 1, wherein the data to be routed to the second computing device corresponds to at least one of:

vehicle location monitoring, vehicle system monitoring, vehicle navigation, vehicle operation, vehicle safety, media content, entertainment content, data generated by an end-user of the information distribution system, data generated by an administrator of the information distribution system, a request generated by the end-user, or a request generated by the administrator.

8. The information distribution system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of computing devices are included in one or more networks.

9. The information distribution system of claim 8, wherein the one or more networks includes a private network.

10. The information distribution system of claim 1, wherein the second computing device is configured to:

receive the routed data; and

cause, after the vehicle has arrived at the destination port, the routed data to be transferred to the vehicle using a respective wireless communication channel.

11. The information distribution system of claim 10, wherein the second computing device and the on-board data distribution device are authenticated as a publisher and a subscriber to transfer the routed data.

12. The information distribution system of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication channel corresponds to a particular bearer of a plurality of bearers having different types, and wherein the on-board data distribution device includes a plurality of interfaces that correspond to the plurality of bearers and that are fixedly connected to the vehicle.