Download management with congestion mitigation for over the air content delivery to vehicles

• US 10,667,172 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2018
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Ingerman, Mark M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Masur, Paul H
• Application Number:
  US16/010,602
• Publication Number:
  US 20190387430A1
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/15 in relation to multipoint traffic arrangements for broadcast or multicast in data networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/22 Traffic shaping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0247 based on conditions of the access network or the infrastructure network central resource management H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0284 detecting congestion or overload during communication monitoring arrangements H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0289 Congestion control load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

Among other things, this document describes systems, devices, and methods for wireless content delivery to vehicles and in particular to vehicles in cellular radio environments. The teachings hereof can be used to deliver a vehicle manufacturer'"'"'s head unit updates, firmware, configurations, and other data to a vehicle. In embodiments, downloads are managed at the control plane and/or data plane. Download management can include mitigating either current or anticipated wireless congestion at cell towers, enforcing campaign priority for firmware updates, accommodating occupant-originated data flows to and from the vehicle, and/or accounting for contractual data arrangements between vehicles makers and cellular providers, among other things.

Claims

1. A method for managing the delivery of an update to a vehicle, the method comprising:

A. receiving a request from vehicles in a class to subscribe to a topic corresponding to the class;

B. starting delivery of a campaign by sending a first message to the class of vehicles, all of which are running and connected to cell towers and have head units, the class of vehicles being defined by one or more of;

make, model, and head unit version;

C. wherein sending the first message comprises publishing the first message to the topic for the class;

D. wherein the first message comprises any of;

a. a campaign start message comprising at least one URL for use in downloading an update, and

b. a contact campaign server message comprising a directive to contact a campaign server for instruction on downloading the update;

E. determining to send a second message to one or more of the class of vehicles, the second message comprising a directive instructing the one or more of the class of vehicles to take an action regarding downloading of the update from at least one server, the action being any of;

pause, delay, throttle, and cancel;

F. wherein said determination is based at least in part on one or more of;

congestion status of one or more cell towers, anticipated congestion status of one or more cell towers, a priority of the campaign relative to a priority of another campaign, and a contractual arrangement between a vehicle manufacturer and a cellular provider.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the update comprises firmware for a head unit in a vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said determination is based at least in part on consulting a policy defined by the vehicle manufacturer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the second message to all vehicles in the class.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the second message to one or more particular vehicles in the class based on detected congestion at a cell tower to which the one or more particular vehicles is connected.

6. The method of claim 1, the first message comprising (a) a campaign start message comprising at least one URL for use in downloading an update.

7. The method of claim 1, the first message comprising (b) a contact campaign server message comprising a directive to contact a campaign server for instruction on downloading the update.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving congestion data from a cellular provider.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving congestion data generated by one or more edge servers available to serve the update to vehicles in the class.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first message comprises an MQTT message.

11. A method for managing the delivery of an update to a vehicle, the method comprising:

A. starting delivery of a campaign by sending a first message to a class of vehicles, all of which are running and connected to cell towers and have head units, the class of vehicles being defined by one or more of;

make, model, and head unit version,

B. wherein the first message comprises any of;

a. a campaign start message comprising at least one URL for use in downloading an update, and

b. a contact campaign server message comprising a directive to contact a campaign server for instruction on downloading the update;

C. determining to send a second message to one or more of the class of vehicles, the second message comprising a directive instructing the one or more of the class of vehicles to take an action regarding downloading of the update from at least one server, the action being any of;

pause, delay, throttle, and cancel;

D. wherein said determination is based at least in part on one or more of;

congestion status of one or more cell towers, anticipated congestion status of one or more cell towers, a priority of the campaign relative to a priority of another campaign, and a contractual arrangement between a vehicle manufacturer and a cellular provider;

E. prior to sending the first message, receiving a third message from the campaign server with an instruction to start the campaign, and in response thereto, sending the first message.

12. A system for managing the delivery of an update to a vehicle, the system comprising:

A. a cellular congestion and download management entity comprising one or more computers having circuitry forming at least one processor and at least one memory device storing instructions for execution on the at least one processor, the instructions when executed causing the one or more computers to;

a. receive a request from vehicles in the class to subscribe to a topic corresponding to the class;

b. initiate delivery of a campaign by sending a first message to a class of vehicles, all of which are running and connected to cell towers and have head units, the class of vehicles being defined by one or more of;

make, model, and head unit version,

c. wherein sending the first message comprises publishing the first message to the topic for the class;

d. wherein the first message comprises any of;

i. a campaign start message comprising at least one URL for use in downloading an update, and

ii. a contact campaign server message comprising a directive to contact a campaign server distinct from the cellular congestion and download management entity for instruction on downloading the update;

e. determine to send a second message to one or more of the class of vehicles, the second message comprising a directive instructing the one or more of the class of vehicles to take an action regarding downloading of the update from at least one server, the action being any of;

pause, delay, throttle, and cancel;

f. wherein said determination is based at least in part on one or more of;

congestion status of one or more cell towers, anticipated congestion status of one or more cell towers, a priority of the campaign relative to a priority of another campaign, and a contractual arrangement between a vehicle manufacturer and a cellular provider.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the update comprises firmware for a head unit in a vehicle.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein said determination is based at least in part on consulting a policy defined by the vehicle manufacturer.

15. The system of claim 12, the instructions when executed further causing the one or more computers to:

send the second message to all vehicles in the class.

16. The system of claim 12, the instructions when executed further causing the one or more computers to:

send the second message to one or more particular vehicles in the class based on detected congestion at a cell tower to which the one or more particular vehicles is connected.

17. The system of claim 12, the first message comprising (i) a campaign start message comprising at least one URL for use in downloading an update.

18. The system of claim 12, the first message comprising (ii) a contact campaign server message comprising a directive to contact a campaign server for instruction on downloading the update.

19. The system of claim 12, the instructions when executed further causing the one or more computers to:

receive congestion data from a cellular provider.

20. The system of claim 12, the instructions when executed further causing the one or more computers to:

receive congestion data generated by one or more edge servers available to serve the update to vehicles in the class.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the first message comprises an MQTT message, and the cellular congestion and download management entity comprises an MQTT broker.

22. A system for managing the delivery of an update to a vehicle, the system comprising:

A. a cellular congestion and download management entity comprising one or more computers having circuitry forming at least one processor and at least one memory device storing instructions for execution on the at least one processor, the instructions when executed causing the one or more computers to;

a. initiate delivery of a campaign by sending a first message to a class of vehicles, all of which are running and connected to cell towers and have head units, the class of vehicles being defined by one or more of;

make, model, and head unit version,

b. wherein the first message comprises any of;

i. a campaign start message comprising at least one URL for use in downloading an update, and

ii. a contact campaign server message comprising a directive to contact a campaign server distinct from the cellular congestion and download management entity for instruction on downloading the update;

c. determine to send a second message to one or more of the class of vehicles, the second message comprising a directive instructing the one or more of the class of vehicles to take an action regarding downloading of the update from at least one server, the action being any of;

pause, delay, throttle, and cancel;

d. wherein said determination is based at least in part on one or more of;

congestion status of one or more cell towers, anticipated congestion status of one or more cell towers, a priority of the campaign relative to a priority of another campaign, and a contractual arrangement between a vehicle manufacturer and a cellular provider;

e. prior to sending the first message, receive a third message from the campaign server with an instruction to start the campaign, and in response thereto, sending the first message.