Ad-hoc mobile IP network for intelligent transportation system

• US 7,813,843 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2007
• Issued: 10/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jain, Mukul, Kumar, Sanjeev, Patel, Labhesh, Shaffer, Shmuel, Ethier, Randall Paul Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu; Yonel
• Application Number:
  US11/619,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20080167774A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,377 Days
• Field of Search: 701117-119, 701200-202, 701/206, 340/3.4, 340/3.41
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/00 Traffic control systems for road vehicles arrangement of road signs or traffic signals E01F9/00 ; automatic vehicle control B62D
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A method for intelligently managing a transportation network is provided. The method may include providing a roadside apparatus 18 to communicate with nodes 14A to 14D associated with vehicles 12A to 12D in a transportation network, the vehicle nodes being in a neighborhood range of the roadside apparatus. The roadside apparatus may dynamically detect the presence of a node 14A associated with a first vehicle 12A, and establish a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between the roadside apparatus and the first vehicle'"'"'s node. The roadside apparatus 18 receives, in real-time, from the first vehicle'"'"'s node 14A event data of events associated with the first vehicle 12A over the mobile IP network. The roadside apparatus 18 or nodes 14A to 14D may further receive or transmit real-time command data to control subsystems of a vehicle.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

dynamically detecting the presence of a first node associated with a first vehicle utilizing a roadside apparatus, the roadside apparatus to communicate with nodes associated with vehicles in a transportation communications network, the vehicle nodes being in neighborhood range of the roadside apparatus;

dynamically detecting the presence of a second node associated with a second vehicle;

establishing a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between the roadside apparatus and the first node, and extending the mobile IP network to the second node;

receiving from the first node event data of events associated with the first vehicle over the mobile IP network in real-time, and receiving from the second node, over the mobile IP network in real-time, event data associated with the second vehicle; and

transmitting, in response to the event data received from the vehicle nodes, real-time command data to any vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network, to control vehicle subsystems associated with the vehicle, thereby to control the motion of vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

transmitting, over the mobile IP network in real-time, to any vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network the event data received from the first node and from the second node.

3. The method of claim 1, in which the event data comprises the geographic location of the vehicle, the velocity of the vehicle, the acceleration of the vehicle, the momentum of the vehicle, type of vehicle, dimension data of the vehicle, radar data, video data or laser range distance data relating to any nearby vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network, or the weight of the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the real-time command data comprises transmitting the real-time command data over the mobile IP network to the vehicle subsystems of the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, in which the vehicle subsystems comprise one or more of a throttle subsystem, a steering subsystem or a brake subsystem.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the event data is manipulated to assess whether the field of view of any vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network is obscured by another vehicle.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, if the field of view of any of the vehicle nodes is obscured, assigning a high priority for transmitting the real-time command data to each of the obscured vehicle nodes.

8. The method of claim 2, in which the mobile IP network communication is via real-time IP audio and video wireless services technologies having a mission critical nature.

9. The method of claim 2, in which the mobile IP network communication is via the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), Secure RTP (SRTP), Real-Time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) or other real-time wireless technologies.

10. The method of claim 9, in which IP packets of the mobile IP network communication is encapsulated by Wireless mobile WiFi (IEEE 802.11p), mobile WiMax (IEEE 802.16e), Wireless PAN (IEEE 802.15.4), Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (IEEE 802.20), G3.5, or a similar protocol optimized for low latency communication in the wireless environment.

11. The method of claim 10, in which the mobile IP communication provides for quality of service support.

12. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

communicating data on weather conditions or road conditions to one or more vehicles in the mobile IP network.

13. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a query from a vehicle node; and

transmitting the query to other vehicle nodes forming part of the mobile IP network.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving an answer to the query from a vehicle node; and

transmitting the query answer to other vehicle nodes forming part of the mobile IP network.

15. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

establishing a neighborhood of vehicle nodes associated with the vehicle node of the first vehicle; and

facilitating posting of messages between vehicle nodes in the same neighborhood.

16. A method comprising:

at a first vehicle node,

dynamically detecting the presence of a second vehicle node associated with a second vehicle within a neighborhood range of the first vehicle node, the first vehicle node and the second vehicle node operating in a transportation communications network;

establishing a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between the first vehicle node and the second vehicle node;

dynamically detecting the presence of a roadside apparatus in neighborhood range of the first vehicle node;

extending the mobile IP network to the roadside apparatus;

monitoring events associated with the first vehicle and communicating event data associated with the events to the second vehicle node over the mobile IP network in real-time;

receiving real-time command data over the mobile IP network, the command data being in response to the event data sent from the vehicle nodes; and

controlling vehicle subsystems of the first vehicle in response to receiving the real-time command data, to control the motion of the first vehicle.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, over the mobile IP network in real-time, from the second vehicle node event data associated with events of the second vehicle or event data received by the second vehicle from any other vehicle node.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising:

transmitting, over the mobile IP network in real-time, to any vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network the event data received from the first vehicle node and from nodes of any other vehicle.

19. The method of claim 18, in which the event data comprises the geographic location of the vehicle, the velocity of the vehicle, the acceleration of the vehicle, the momentum of the vehicle, type of vehicle, dimension data of the vehicle, radar data, video data or laser range distance data relating to any nearby vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network, or the weight of the vehicle.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the event data is manipulated to assess whether the field of view of any vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network is obscured by another vehicle.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein, if the field of view of any of the vehicle nodes is obscured, assigning a high priority for transmitting the real-time command data to each of the obscured vehicle nodes.

22. The method of claim 16, in which the vehicle subsystems comprise one or more of a throttle subsystem, a steering subsystem or a brake subsystem.

23. The method of claim 16, in which the mobile IP network communication is via real-time IP audio and video wireless services technologies having a mission critical nature.

24. The method of claim 16, in which the mobile IP network communication is via the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), Secure RTP (SRTP), Real-Time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) or other real-time wireless technologies.

25. The method of claim 24, in which IP packets of the mobile IP network communication is encapsulated by Wireless mobile WiFi (IEEE 802.11p), mobile WiMax (IEEE 802.16e), Wireless PAN (IEEE 802.15.4), Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (IEEE 802.20), G3.5, or a similar protocol optimized for low latency communication in the wireless environment.

26. The method of claim 25, in which the mobile IP communication provides for quality of service support.

27. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating a query at the first vehicle node; and

transmitting the query to either a vehicle node or a roadside apparatus forming part of the mobile IP network.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

receiving an answer to the query from a vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network via any vehicle node or via the roadside apparatus.

29. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

establishing a neighborhood of vehicle nodes associated with the vehicle node of the first vehicle; and

facilitating posting of messages between vehicle nodes in the same neighborhood.

30. A system comprising:

a plurality of wireless nodes associated with vehicles in a transportation network, each wireless node comprising;

a mobility module to generate data on events associated with the vehicle;

a communication module to;

wirelessly communicate with other vehicle nodes in a neighborhood range of the node to establish a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between the vehicles nodes,

communicate data associated with the events to other vehicles'"'"' nodes over the mobile IP network in real-time, and

receive real-time command data over the IP network, the command data being in response to data events communicated by the communication module; and

a controlling module to control, in response to the real-time command data, vehicle subsystems associated with the vehicle, thereby to control the motion of the vehicle.

31. The system of claim 30 further comprising:

at least one roadside apparatus comprising a communication module to dynamically detect the presence of any node associated with a vehicle, the roadside apparatus forming part of the mobile IP network.

32. The system of claim 31, in which the events data comprises the geographic location of a vehicle, the velocity of the vehicle, the acceleration of the vehicle, the momentum of the vehicle, type of vehicle, dimension data of the vehicle, radar data, video data or laser range distance data relating to any nearby vehicle node forming part of the mobile IP network, or the weight of the vehicle.

33. The system of claim 31, in which the mobile IP network communication is via real-time IP audio and video wireless services technologies having a mission critical nature.

34. The system of claim 31, in which the mobile IP network communication is via the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), Secure RTP (SRTP), Real-Time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) or other real-time wireless technologies.

35. The system of claim 34, in which IP packets of the mobile IP network communication is encapsulated by Wireless mobile WiFi (IEEE 802.11p), mobile WiMax (IEEE 802.16e), Wireless PAN (IEEE 802.15.4), Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (IEEE 802.20), G3.5, or a similar protocol optimized for low latency communication in the wireless environment.

36. The system of claim 30, in which the vehicle subsystems comprise a throttle subsystem, a steering subsystem or a brake subsystem.

37. A method comprising:

in a first vehicle node comprising a processing module, a mobility module, a monitoring module, a communication module and vehicle subsystems;

establishing a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between the processing module and any one of the mobility module, monitoring module and vehicle subsystems;

at the mobility module and monitoring module of the first vehicle node;

dynamically monitoring events associated with the first vehicle;

transmitting, in real-time, event data relating to the monitored events associated with the first vehicle to the processing module;

at the communication module of the first vehicle node;

receiving real-time command data from a roadside apparatus, the roadside apparatus forming part of the mobile IP network; and

at the processing module of the first vehicle node;

communicating, in real-time, and in response to reception of the command data from the roadside apparatus, command data to the vehicle subsystems, thereby to control the motion of the first vehicle.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

at the first vehicle node;

dynamically detecting the presence of a second vehicle node associated with a second vehicle within a neighborhood range of the first vehicle node, the first vehicle node and the second vehicle node operating in a transportation communications network;

extending the mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network to the second vehicle node; and

communicating event data associated with the events of the first vehicle and command data to the second vehicle node over the mobile IP network in real-time.

39. The method of claim 38, comprising:

at the first vehicle node;

dynamically detecting the presence of the roadside apparatus in neighborhood range of the first vehicle node;

extending the mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network to the roadside apparatus; and

transmitting event data or command data over the mobile IP network in real-time to any vehicle node or roadside apparatus forming part of the mobile IP network.

40. The method of claim 37, in which the vehicle subsystems comprise one or more of a throttle subsystem, a steering subsystem or a brake subsystem.