Providing multimedia contents to user equipment associated with electric vehicle

• US 9,886,813 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2014
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KT Corporation
• Original Assignee: KT Corporation
• Inventors: Han, Jong-Hoon, Kim, Ki-Jung
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Jimmy H
• Application Number:
  US14/201,839
• Publication Number:
  US 20140258457A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,431 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/003 for electricity
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/005 dispensed for the electrical charging of vehicles electrical charging as such, B60L50/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/008 Rewarding for providing delivery of electricity to the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/103 across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• 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

Abstract

Described embodiments relate to providing a multimedia contents service to user equipment associated with an electric vehicle located in an electric vehicle charging station through a wireless access point. The wireless access point may allocate an Internet Protocol (IP) address to user equipment associated with an electric vehicle located in an electric vehicle charging station in response to a connection request message received from the user equipment. Then, the wireless access point may transmit a request message to a service server with user identification information of the user equipment and the assigned IP address. In response to the request message, the wireless access point may receive predetermined multimedia contents and deliver the received predetermined multimedia contents to the user equipment based on the assigned IP address.

Claims

1. A method of providing a multimedia contents service to user equipment registered at a service server in connection with an electric vehicle located in a first electric vehicle charging station through a wireless access point installed at the first electric vehicle charging station, the method comprising:

assigning, by the wireless access point, an Internet Protocol (IP) address to user equipment registered at a service server in connection with an electric vehicle located in the first electric vehicle charging station in response to a connection request message received from the user equipment;

transmitting a request message to the service server with user identification information of the user equipment and the assigned IP address; and

receiving predetermined multimedia contents, and delivering the received predetermined multimedia contents to the user equipment registered in connection with the electric vehicle, based on the assigned IP address,

wherein the assigning includes;

determining whether the user equipment is previously registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle as user equipment permitted to receive the multimedia contents service during an electric charging of the electric vehicle at the first electric vehicle charging station, when the connection request message is received from the user equipment; and

assigning the IP address to the user equipment when the user equipment is previously registered.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigning includes:

receiving the connection request message from the user equipment;

obtaining the user identification information from the connection request message; and

transmitting the obtained user identification information and a request message for determining whether the user equipment is registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle to an associated communication service provider.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the assigning includes:

receiving a determination result from the associated communication service provider; and

assigning the IP address to the user equipment when the determination result indicates that the user equipment is registered user equipment registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle.

4. The method of claim 2, comprising:

determining, by the associated communication service provider, whether the user equipment is previously registered for a service with information on an associated electric vehicle based on registration information stored in the associated communication service provider.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the assigning includes:

receiving a confirmation message that confirms the user equipment is registered user equipment and information on an associated vehicle information from the associated communication service provider; and

determining whether the user equipment is registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle located in the first electric vehicle charging station.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the assigning includes:

receiving the connection request message from the user equipment;

obtaining the user identification information from the connection request message; and

transmitting the obtained user identification information and a request message for determining whether the user equipment is registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the assigning includes:

receiving a determination result from the service server; and

assigning the IP address to the user equipment when the determination result indicates that the user equipment registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle located in the first electric vehicle charging station.

8. The method of claim 6, comprising:

determining, by the service server, whether the user equipment is previously registered in connection with the electric vehicle for the multimedia content service with information on the electric vehicle based on registration information stored in the service server.

9. The method of claim 6, comprising:

determining, by the service server, whether the user equipment is associated with the electric vehicle coupled to at least one of electric charging units included in the first electric vehicle charging station based on the user identification information obtained from the request message and vehicle identification information obtained from the at least one of electric charging units.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting includes:

detecting, by the service server, an electric charging unit coupled to the electric vehicle registered at the service server in connection with the user equipment based on the user identification information and vehicle identification information obtained from at least one of electric charging units included in the first electric vehicle charging station;

requesting, by the service server, a charging operation status to the detected electric charging unit; and

providing the predetermined multimedia contents to the user equipment when the service server receives a charging initiation notification message from the detected electric charging unit.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the providing includes:

transmitting, by the service server, a request message for the predetermined multimedia contents with the user identification information and the assigned IP address to a contents server,

wherein the contents server transmits the predetermined multimedia contents to the user equipment based on the assigned IP address in response to the request message.

12. The method of claim 10, comprising:

receiving, by the service server, a charging interruption notification message from the detected electric charging unit; and

transmitting a charging completion message to the wireless access point and the contents server in response to the charging interruption notification message,

wherein the contents server interrupts transmitting the predetermined multimedia contents to the user equipment in response to the charging completion message and the wireless access point release a communication link to the user equipment in response to the charging completion message.

13. A method of providing a multimedia contents service, by a service server, to user equipment registered at the service server in connection with an electric vehicle located in a first electric vehicle charging station through a wireless access point installed in the first electric vehicle charging station, the method comprising:

receiving, from the wireless access point, a request message with an assigned IP address and user identification information of user equipment transmitting a connection request message to the wireless access point; and

providing predetermined multimedia contents to the user equipment registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle, based on the assigned IP address when receiving a charging initiation notification message from an electric charging unit coupled to the electric vehicle,

wherein the assigned IP address is, by the wireless access point, assigned to the user equipment in response to the connection request message when the user equipment transmitting the connection request message is previously registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle as user equipment permitted to receive the multimedia contents service during an electric charging of the electric vehicle located at the first electric vehicle charging station.

14. The method of claim 13, comprising:

detecting the electric charging unit coupled to the electric vehicle based on user identification information included in the request message and vehicle identification information obtained from at least one of electric charging units included in the first electric vehicle charging station; and

requesting a charging operation status from the detected electric charging unit.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the providing includes:

transmitting a multimedia contents request message with the assigned IP address and the user identification information to a contents server when receiving a charging initiation notification message from the electric charging unit coupled to the electric vehicle,

wherein the contents server transmits the predetermined multimedia contents to the user equipment based on the assigned IP address and the user identification information.

16. The method of claim 14, comprising:

receiving a charging interruption notification message from the detected electric charging unit; and

transmitting a charging completion message to the wireless access point and the contents server in response to the charging interruption notification message,

wherein the contents server interrupts transmitting the predetermined multimedia contents to the user equipment in response to the charging completion message and the wireless access point release a communication link to the user equipment in response to the charging completion message.

17. The method of claim 13, comprising:

receiving a request message for determining whether the user equipment is registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle located in the first electric vehicle charging station with user identification information of the user equipment;

determining whether the user equipment is previously registered for a service with information on an associated electric vehicle based on registration information stored in the service server; and

transmitting a confirmation message to allow the wireless access point to assign an IP address to the user equipment when the user equipment is registered for the service.

18. The method of claim 13, comprising:

receiving a request message for determining whether the user equipment is associated with an electric vehicle located in the first electric vehicle charging station with user identification information of the user equipment;

determining whether the user equipment is registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle coupled to at least one of electric charging units included in the first electric vehicle charging station based on the user identification information obtained from the request message and vehicle identification information obtained from the at least one of electric charging units; and

transmitting a confirmation message to allow the wireless access point to assign an IP address to the user equipment when the user equipment is registered at the service server in connection with the electric vehicle coupled to one of the electric charging unit based on the user identification information and the vehicle identification information.

19. The method of claim 13, comprising:

obtaining a multimedia contents providing history registered at the service server in connection with the user equipment after establishing a communication link to the user equipment based on the assigned IP address; and

providing the obtained multimedia contents providing history to the user equipment,

wherein the multimedia contents providing history includes information on previously provided multimedia contents, a name of each provided multimedia content, a time of providing each multimedia content, and an interrupted point of each provided multimedia content.

20. The method of claim 19, comprising:

receiving information on a selected multimedia content from the user equipment; and

transmitting a multimedia contents request message to a contents server with information on the selected multimedia contents and an associated interrupted point,

wherein the contents server transmits the selected multimedia contents from the associated interrupted point.