Network event management support for vehicle wireless communication

• US 9,444,892 B1
• Filed: 05/05/2015
• Issued: 09/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Amireddy, Sridhar Reddy, Haugh, David A., Oyler, Alex J., Turner, Joshua D.
• Primary Examiner(s): MIZRAHI, DIANE D
• Application Number:
  US14/703,997
• Time in Patent Office: 497 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• 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: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/12 Inter-network notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/00 Network data management

Abstract

A method of communicating with a telematics unit in a vehicle. The method comprises receiving a content message directed to a telematics unit by an event manager application executing on a server computer, wherein the telematics unit is an electronic device comprising a wireless communication transceiver and integrated into a motor vehicle, determining by the event manager application that the content message is a high priority message type, and determining by the event manager application that the telematics unit is off-line and out-of-wireless-coverage. The method further comprises, responsive to determining that the content message is a high priority message type and to determining that the telematics unit is off-line and out-of-wireless-coverage, sending by the event manager application a wake-up message to the telematics unit, wherein the telematics unit, responsive to receiving the wake-up message, establishes a roaming data wireless communication link and receives the content message via the data link.

Claims

1. A method of communicating with telematics units in vehicles by a communication hub in a wireless communication service provider network that maintains communication state information about a plurality of telematics units, wherein the telematics unit communication states comprise an on-line state, an off-line state, and an off-line and out-of-wireless coverage state, comprising:

receiving a content message directed to a telematics unit by an event manager application executing on a server computer, wherein the telematics unit is an electronic device comprising a wireless communication transceiver and integrated into a motor vehicle;

determining by the event manager application that the content message is a high priority message type;

determining by the event manager application that the telematics unit is off-line and out-of-wireless-coverage; and

responsive to determining that the content message is a high priority message type and to determining that the telematics unit is off-line and out-of-wireless-coverage, sending by the event manager application a wake-up message to the telematics unit,

wherein the telematics unit, responsive to receiving the wake-up message, establishes a roaming data wireless communication link and receives the content message via the roaming data wireless communication link.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the high priority message type is one of a remote operation message type, a parental controls message type, or a vehicle locate message type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the event manager application sends the wake-up message as a short message service (SMS) message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the telematics unit is configured to establish a wireless communication link according to one of a long-term evolution (LTE), a code division multiple access (CDMA), a global system for mobile communications (GSM), or a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) wireless communication protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the event manager application is subscribed to receive messages sent to the telematics unit via a messaging gateway and messages received from the telematics unit via the messaging gateway, wherein the messaging gateway executes on a server computer in a wireless communication service provider network.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second content message directed to a second telematics unit by the event manager application, wherein the second telematics unit is an electronic device comprising a second wireless communication transceiver and integrated into a second motor vehicle;

determining by the event manager application that the second telematics unit is on-line; and

responsive to determining that the second telematics unit is on-line, not sending by the event manager application a wake-up message to the second telematics unit,

wherein the second telematics unit retrieves the second content message from a messaging gateway without intervention of the event manager application.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the event manager application and the messaging gateway are part of an enterprise service bus communication platform that promotes wireless message communication to and from a plurality of telematics units.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second content message directed to the telematics unit by the event manager application;

determining by the event manager application that the second content message is a low priority message type;

determining by the event manager application that the telematics unit is off-line;

responsive to determining that the second content message is a low priority message type and to determining that the telematics unit is off-line, storing by the event manager application the second content message in a message queue;

after storing the second content message in the message queue, receiving by the event manager application a status message that indicates that the telematics unit is on-line; and

responsive to receiving the status message indicating the telematics unit is on-line, transmitting by the event manager application the second content message to the telematics unit.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the event manager application transmitting a plurality of content messages to the telematics unit that are stored on the message queue in response to receiving the status message indicating that the telematics unit is on-line.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the event manager application sends the second content message to the telematics unit by sending the second content message to a messaging gateway.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the messaging gateway uses message queue telemetry transport (MQTT) publish-subscribe communication protocol.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the event manager application subscribes to receive all messages sent to and received from telematics units via the messaging gateway.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein a state of the telematics unit is stored in a data store in an enterprise service bus communication platform and the event manager application determines the on-line or off-line state of the telematics unit by accessing the data store.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the motor vehicle is one of an automobile, a truck, or a boat.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second content message directed to the telematics unit by the event manager application;

determining by the event manager application that an acknowledgement timer associated with the second content message is expired; and

responsive to determining that the acknowledgement timer is expired, sending by the event manager application a wake-up message to the telematics unit,

wherein the telematics unit, responsive to receiving the wake-up message, establishes a wireless data communication link and receives the second content message.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the wireless data communication link is based on one of a long-term evolution (LTE), a code division multiple access (CDMA), a global system for mobile communication (GSM), or a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) wireless communication protocol.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising, responsive to receiving the second content message, initiating by the event manager application a count-down timer associated with the second content message having a predetermined expiration.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising, responsive to receiving the second content message, determining a state of the telematics unit to be on-line, wherein initiating the count-down timer is further performed responsive to the determination of the on-line state of the telematics unit.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a different content message directed to a different telematics unit by the event manager application, wherein the different telematics unit is an electronic device comprising a wireless communication transceiver and integrated into a different motor vehicle;

determining that the state of the different telematics unit is off-line; and

responsive to the determination that the state of the different telematics unit is off-line, storing the different content message in a message queue and not initiating a count-down timer associated with the different content message.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

after storing the different content message in the message queue, receiving by the event manager application a status message that indicates that the different telematics unit is on-line; and

responsive to receiving the status message indicating the different telematics unit is on-line, retrieving the different content message from the message queue by the event manager application and transmitting by the event manager application the different content message to the different telematics unit.