Power Management for Vehicle-Mounted Base Station

• US 20160288744A1
• Filed: 03/30/2016
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parallel Wireless, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Parallel Wireless, Inc.
• Inventors: Rutherford, Randy, Paquette, Louis, Sullivan, Robert, Mishra, Rajesh Kumar, Johnston, David, Cao, Yang, Saji, Michael Yasuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 10,093,251 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 1/00 Supplying electric power to auxiliary equipment of vehicles circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/70 Interactions with external data bases, e.g. traffic centres
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/03 for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems or for circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40013 Details regarding a bus controller
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/10 adapted for operation in multiple networks, e.g. multi-mode access points
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

A base station for providing dynamic power management is disclosed, comprising, a processor within an enclosure mounted in a vehicle, a power management unit coupled to the processor, a controller area network (CAN) bus monitoring system coupled to the power management unit and to a CAN bus of the vehicle, a voltage measurement module also coupled to the power management unit and to a battery of the vehicle; a baseband processor coupled to the processor, a first wireless access functionality coupled to the baseband processor, and a second wireless access functionality coupled to the baseband processor, wherein the power management unit is coupled to each of the first and the second wireless access functionality to enable access radio bringup, access radio shutdown, and graceful user detach based on a power state at the power management unit.

Claims

1. A base station for providing dynamic power management, comprising:

a processor within an enclosure mounted in a vehicle;

a power management unit coupled to the processor;

a controller area network (CAN) bus monitoring system coupled to the power management unit and to a CAN bus of the vehicle;

a voltage measurement module also coupled to the power management unit and to a battery of the vehicle;

a baseband processor coupled to the processor;

a first wireless access functionality coupled to the baseband processor; and

a second wireless access functionality coupled to the baseband processor,

wherein the power management unit is coupled to each of the first and the second wireless access functionality to enable access radio bringup, access radio shutdown, and graceful user detach based on a power state at the power management unit.

2. The base station of claim 1, wherein the voltage measurement module is coupled to both of an always-on power circuit of the vehicle and an ignition power circuit of the vehicle simultaneously.

3. The base station of claim 1, the power management unit further comprising a timer for providing power to at least one of the Wi-Fi and base station functionalities after an ignition is turned off, thereby providing runlock functionality.

4. The base station of claim 1, the power management unit further comprising instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the power management unit to be in one of:

a first ignition off state reflecting an accessory electrical mode of the vehicle, an ignition on state reflecting an ignition on electrical mode of the vehicle.

5. The base station of claim 4, the power management unit further comprising instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the power management unit to be in one of a second ignition off state reflecting greater than a set period of inactivity in the first ignition off state, a cranking state reflecting engagement of a starter of the vehicle, and a shore power state.

6. The base station of claim 1, wherein the base station provides Wi-Fi and Long Term Evolution (LTE) access functionalities.

7. The base station of claim 1, wherein the base station utilizes direct current (DC) power.

8. The base station of claim 1, wherein the base station utilizes alternating current (AC) power, and further comprises an inverter coupled to the battery of the vehicle, the inverter configured to return to a powered-on state after a transient fault without manual intervention.

9. The base station of claim 1, further comprising a button located on a dashboard of the vehicle configured to turn the base station on when pressed.

10. The base station of claim 1, further comprising a global positioning system (GPS) module and a geofencing module coupled to the GPS module and the processor, the geofencing module being coupled to the power management module, the geofencing module being for determining whether a given radio access technology should be activated or deactivated based on a location received from the GPS module, the GPS module being coupled to a GPS antenna mounted exterior to the vehicle.

11. The base station of claim 1, the power management unit further comprising a detector for determining whether shore power is being provided and for instructing the power management unit to change its power management state.

12. The base station of claim 1, the power management unit configured to use always-on circuit power to maintain an approximate temperature of a temperature-controlled chamber of a crystal oscillator in the base station.

13. The base station of claim 1, wherein the first and the second wireless access functionalities are coupled to radio antennas exterior to the vehicle.

14. The base station of claim 1, wherein the CAN bus monitoring system is coupled to the base station via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port and to the CAN bus of the vehicle via an on-board diagnostic (ODB) port of the vehicle.

15. A method for dynamic power management of an in-vehicle base station, comprising:

monitoring a vehicle controller area network (CAN) bus of a vehicle for power-related messages;

monitoring a positioning sensor to determine a location of the vehicle;

monitoring a voltage of an electrical circuit in the vehicle to determine a power management state; and

conducting an orderly shutdown of radio frequency services based on the power-related messages, the location of the vehicle, and the power management state.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the radio frequency services further comprise a Wi-Fi access network and a Long Term Evolution (LTE) access network, and wherein the positioning sensor is a global positioning system (GPS) positioning sensor.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the orderly shutdown further comprises detaching users, handing users over to another base station, or updating a routing configuration of a mesh network.

18. A method for bringup of an in-vehicle base station, comprising:

powering on a base station in a vehicle;

identifying a power management state of the vehicle;

searching for mesh nodes to provide a connection for the base station;

activating a Long Term Evolution (LTE) user equipment (UE) coupled to the base station;

attempting to connect to an LTE network using the LTE UE;

applying a configuration from a mesh node, an LTE network, or a radio frequency environment discovered by the UE; and

based on the applied configuration and based on the power management state of the vehicle, determining whether to activate a radio frequency access network.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the radio frequency access network is an LTE access network or a Wi-Fi access network.