Operating techniques for a storage network system

• US 9,569,448 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2015
• Issued: 02/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Doi, Munehiro, Nakano, Hiroki, Nishino, Hitoshi, Takasaka, Shinya
• Primary Examiner(s): Bowen, Richard
• Application Number:
  US14/734,677
• Publication Number:
  US 20150373113A1
• Time in Patent Office: 616 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• 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 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]

Abstract

A technique for operating a storage network system includes storing, at one or more of a plurality of data collection storages arranged along a traveling path of a mobile body, data records received from the mobile body. An acknowledge (ACK) record including a storage identifier (ID) is transmitted, from the one or more of the plurality of data collection storages to the mobile body, in response to receiving the data records. Communication between a user storage and the one or more of the plurality of data collection storages is established via a communication network that is configured to receive the ACK record and receive and store at least one of the data records from the one or more of the data collection storages that is identified by the storage ID in the received ACK record.

Claims

1. A method of operating a storage network system having a plurality of data collection storages, comprising:

identifying, by a computing system associated the storage network system and coupled to a mobile body traveling along a transportation path at a speed below a threshold speed, a geographical location of one or more data collection storages of the plurality of data collection storages arranged along the transportation path;

determining, by the computing system and based on the speed of the mobile body and the geographical location, that short range wireless communication can be established between the mobile body and the one or more data collection storages;

transmitting, from the computing system to the one or more data collection storages using short range wireless communication, one or more data records for storing by the one or more data collection storages, wherein the one or more data records are received from at least one sensor of the mobile body;

receiving, from the one or more data collection storages, an acknowledge (ACK) record including a storage identifier (ID) in response to transmitting the one or more data records;

establishing, by the one or more data collection storages, communication with a user storage via a communication network, wherein the user storage is configured to receive the ACK record and receive and store at least one of the data record from the one or more data collection storages identified by the storage ID in the received ACK record; and

receiving, at the user storage, the ACK record from the computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication network includes a plurality of cloud storages in communication with the plurality of data collection storages and the user storage, and wherein each of the cloud storages is configured to store one or more of the data records received from at least one of the plurality of data collection storages and mutually exchange the one or more of the data records with other ones of the cloud storages.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile body includes a local storage for storing one or more of the data records and the ACK record, and wherein the local storage functions as a part of the storage network system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of data collection storages receives, from the mobile body, and storages the ACK record stored in the local storage individually or together with one of the data records.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of data collection storages receives at least one or both of one or more of the data records and the ACK record while the mobile body is at a stop or traveling at a predetermined speed or lower.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each neighboring one of the plurality of data collection storages receives, from the mobile body, one or more of the data records as a part of a series of data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the data records includes a data marker, a mobile body ID, data, a data generation position, and a data generation time, and wherein the ACK record includes an ACK marker, a data generation position, and a data generation time in addition to the storage ID.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user storage receives, from the plurality of data collection storages, all of the data records including any selected one of the mobile body ID, the data generation position, and the data generation time.