Vehicular traffic congestion monitoring through inter-vehicle communication and traffic chain counter

• US 7,979,198 B1
• Filed: 12/20/2007
• Issued: 07/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Tran, Thuy, Kim, John Y.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu; Yonel
• Application Number:
  US11/961,385
• Time in Patent Office: 1,300 Days
• Field of Search: 701117-119, 340/907, 340/910, 340/933, 348148-149
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/091 Traffic information broadcasting broadcasting communication H04H
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed for monitoring vehicular traffic congestion through the use of inter-vehicle communication and traffic chain counters. Data packets including counter, vehicle identification, direction, location, and speed information are transmitted between vehicles via short-range wireless communications. A receiving vehicle edits a data packet if the data packet reflects that the receiving vehicle has not yet edited the packet and is traveling in substantially the same direction as the vehicle which transmitted the packet to the receiving vehicle. If a receiving vehicle is the last vehicle to edit a packet, the receiving vehicle transmits a reporting packet to a traffic monitoring server via long-range wireless communications.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring vehicular traffic comprising:

receiving at a given vehicle a packet wirelessly broadcast from a nearby vehicle, wherein the packet contains at least (i) identification data including an identifier of the nearby vehicle, (ii) a location of the nearby vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the nearby vehicle, and (iv) a counter value;

upon receipt of the packet, determining if the given vehicle is not already identified in the packet and if the given vehicle is traveling in substantially the same direction as the received packet indicates the nearby vehicle is traveling, and, only if so,

(A) incrementing the counter value, adding an identifier of the given vehicle to the identification data so as to establish modified identification data, and then wirelessly broadcasting a next packet containing at least (i) the modified identification data, (ii) a location of the given vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the given vehicle, and (iv) the incremented counter value, and

(B) transmitting to the nearby vehicle an acknowledgement of the received packet; and

transmitting a reporting packet via a radio access network to a traffic monitoring server, wherein contents of the reporting packet are usable by the traffic monitoring server as a basis to determine vehicular traffic.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

conditioning the transmitting of the reporting packet to the traffic monitoring server on a determination that the given vehicle does not receive an acknowledgement of the next packet.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

conditioning the transmitting of the reporting packet to the traffic monitoring server on a determination that the incremented counter value meets a threshold.

4. A system for monitoring vehicular traffic, the system comprising at least a given vehicle operative to carry out functions comprising:

receiving a packet wirelessly broadcast from a nearby vehicle, wherein the packet contains at least (i) identification data including an identifier of the nearby vehicle, (ii) a location of the nearby vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the nearby vehicle, and (iv) a counter value;

upon receipt of the packet, determining if the given vehicle is not already identified in the packet and if the given vehicle is traveling in substantially the same direction as the received packet indicates the nearby vehicle is traveling, and, only if so,

(A) incrementing the counter value, adding an identifier of the given vehicle to the identification data so as to establish modified identification data, and then wirelessly broadcasting a next packet containing at least (i) the modified identification data, (ii) a location of the given vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the given vehicle, and (iv) the incremented counter value, and

(B) transmitting to the nearby vehicle an acknowledgement of the received packet; and

transmitting a reporting packet via a radio access network to a traffic monitoring server, wherein contents of the reporting packet are usable by the traffic monitoring server as a basis to determine vehicular traffic.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the given vehicle conditions transmitting of the reporting packet to the traffic monitoring server on the given vehicle not receiving an acknowledgement of the next packet.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the given vehicle conditions transmitting of the reporting packet to the traffic monitoring server on the incremented counter value meeting a threshold.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the incremented counter is usable by the traffic monitoring server as an indication of vehicular traffic severity.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the given vehicle has a traffic monitoring module that performs the functions.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the traffic monitoring module comprises:

a first wireless transceiver for engaging in direct wireless communication with traffic monitoring modules in nearby vehicles;

a second wireless transceiver for engaging in wireless communication with the radio access network;

a processor;

data storage; and

program instructions stored in the data storage and executable by the processor to perform the functions,

wherein (i) receiving the packet wirelessly transmitted from the nearby vehicle comprises receiving via the first wireless transceiver the packet wirelessly transmitted from the nearby vehicle, (ii) wirelessly broadcasting a next packet comprises wirelessly broadcasting the next packet via the first wireless transceiver, (iii) transmitting the acknowledgement of the received packet comprises transmitting via the first transceiver the acknowledgement of the received packet, and (iv) transmitting at least the next packet via a radio access network to the traffic monitoring server comprises transmitting a reporting packet via the second wireless transceiver to the radio access network for transmission in turn to the traffic monitoring server.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the traffic monitoring module further comprises a satellite-based positioning system receiver and associated logic operable to determine the location of the given vehicle.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the associated logic is further operable to determine the direction of travel of the given vehicle.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the traffic monitoring module further comprises a compass operable to indicate the direction of travel of the given vehicle.

13. The system of claim 9,

wherein the first transceiver wirelessly communicates using a protocol selected from the group consisting of BLUETOOTH, UWB (ultra wide band), ZIGBEE, and 802.11, and

wherein the second transceiver wirelessly communicates using a protocol selected from the group consisting of CDMA, iDEN, TDMA, AMPS, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, EDGE, WiMAX, LTE and satellite.

14. The system of claim 4, wherein the identification data in the received packet further includes an identifier of a vehicle from which the nearby vehicle received an earlier packet.

15. The system of claim 4, wherein the next packet further contains the location of the nearby vehicle and the direction of travel of the nearby vehicle.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the received packet further indicates a speed at which the nearby vehicle is traveling, and wherein the next packet indicates the speed that the received packet indicates the nearby vehicle is traveling as well as a speed at which the given vehicle is traveling.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the received packet further contains a timestamp of the received packet, and wherein the next packet contains the timestamp of the received packet as well as a timestamp of the next packet.

18. A system for monitoring vehicular traffic comprising:

a plurality of vehicles each equipped to wirelessly communicate directly with nearby vehicles and further equipped to wirelessly communicate via a radio access network with a traffic monitoring server,

wherein each given vehicle of the plurality is equipped to receive a packet broadcast from another vehicle, wherein the packet contains at least (i) identification data including an identifier of the other vehicle, (ii) a location of the other vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the other vehicle, and (iv) a counter value,

wherein, upon receipt of the packet, the given vehicle determines if the given vehicle is not already identified in the packet and if the given vehicle is traveling in substantially the same direction as the received packet indicates the other vehicle is traveling, and, only if so,

(A) increments the counter value, adds an identifier of the given vehicle to the identification data so as to establish modified identification data, and then broadcasts for receipt by any nearby vehicles a next packet containing at least (i) the modified identification data, (ii) a location of the given vehicle, (iii) a direction of travel of the given vehicle, and (iv) the incremented counter value, and

(B) transmits to the other vehicle an acknowledgement of the received packet,

wherein the given vehicle is further equipped to transmit a reporting packet via the radio access network to the traffic monitoring server, whereby contents of the reporting packet are usable by the traffic monitoring server to determine vehicular traffic.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the given vehicle conditions transmitting of the reporting packet to the traffic monitoring server on the given vehicle not receiving an acknowledgement of the next packet.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the given vehicle conditions transmitting of the reporting packet to the traffic monitoring server on the incremented counter value meeting a threshold.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein each vehicle is further equipped to broadcast an initial packet that is not based on data received from any nearby vehicles, and to include in the initial packet (i) an identifier of the vehicle broadcasting the initial packet, (ii) a location of the vehicle broadcasting the initial packet, (iii) a direction of travel of the vehicle broadcasting the initial packet, and (iv) a counter value of one.