Ad-hoc mobile IP network for intelligent transportation system

• US 8,620,491 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Patel, Labhesh, Kumar, Sanjeev, Shaffer, Shmuel, Jain, Mukul, Ethier, Randall Paul Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Application Number:
  US13/620,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20130253732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 473 Days
• Field of Search: 701/117, 701 1- 2
• US Class Current: 701/2
• 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 includes providing a roadside apparatus to communicate with vehicle nodes associated with vehicles in a transportation network, the vehicle nodes being in a range of control of the roadside apparatus. Based on real-time location and direction information received from a particular vehicle node associated with a particular one of the vehicles, a specific neighboring roadside apparatus whose range of control is next to be entered by the particular vehicle is identified. Handover information is communicated to the specific neighboring roadside apparatus, and the particular vehicle node is communicatively connected to the specific roadside apparatus before disconnection from the roadside apparatus.

Claims

1. A roadside apparatus comprising:

a communication module to dynamically establish a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between the roadside apparatus and a plurality of vehicle nodes provided by a plurality of respective road vehicles on a road network, the roadside apparatus forming part of a roadside infrastructure comprising multiple roadside apparatuses installed along the road network, the vehicle nodes being in a range of control of the roadside apparatus; and

a handover module to

receive real-time location and direction information about a particular vehicle corresponding to a particular one of the plurality of vehicle nodes,

a traffic analysis module to perform traffic analysis of traffic involving the plurality of vehicles, the traffic analysis being performed based at least in part on the real-time event data location and direction information, predictively identifying a specific neighboring roadside apparatus whose range of control is next to be entered by the particular vehicle node, and

a control module to send a real-time communication communicate to at least one of the plurality of vehicle nodes via the communication module the specific neighboring roadside apparatus, responsive to performance of the traffic analysis predicted entry of the particular vehicle into a range of control of the specific neighboring roadside apparatus, to facilitate communicative connection of the particular vehicle node with specific neighboring roadside apparatus before disconnection thereof from the roadside apparatus.

2. The roadside apparatus of claim 1, wherein the handover module is configured to transfer from the roadside apparatus to the specific neighboring roadside apparatus a data session between the roadside apparatus and the particular vehicle node.

3. The roadside apparatus of claim 1, wherein the roadside apparatus is configured to establish a roadway Internet Protocol (IP) wide area network in cooperation with other roadside apparatuses of the roadside infrastructure.

4. The roadside apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a communication module to receive real-time event data over the mobile IP network from one or more of the plurality of vehicle nodes, the event data being indicative of one or more events experienced at the respective vehicles.

5. The roadside apparatus of claim 4, wherein the location and direction information upon which the predictive identification of the specific neighboring roadside apparatus is based comprises real-time event data received by the communication module from the particular vehicle note.

6. The roadside apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a control module to transmit real-time command data over the mobile IP network to vehicle subsystems of the particular vehicle, to control motion of the particular vehicle in real-time.

7. The roadside apparatus of claim 6, the control module is configured to communicate over the mobile IP network via User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), Secure RIP (SRTP), or Real-Time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP).

8. A method comprising:

dynamically establishing a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network between a roadside apparatus and a plurality of vehicle nodes provided by respective road vehicles traveling on a road network, the roadside apparatus forming part of a roadside infrastructure comprising multiple roadside apparatuses installed along the road network, the vehicle nodes being in a range of control of the roadside apparatus;

receiving, at a network device separate from the vehicle nodes, location and direction information about a particular vehicle corresponding to a particular one of the plurality of vehicle nodes;

based at least in part on the location and direction information, predictively identifying a specific neighboring roadside apparatus whose range of control is next to be entered by the particular vehicle node; and

communicating to the specific neighboring roadside apparatus, from the network device, predicted entry of the particular vehicle into a range of control of the specific neighboring roadside apparatus, to facilitate communicative connection of the particular vehicle node with the specific neighboring roadside apparatus before disconnection thereof from the roadside apparatus.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising transferring from the roadside apparatus to the specific neighboring roadside apparatus a data session between the roadside apparatus and the particular vehicle node.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the roadside apparatus and the specific neighboring roadside apparatus form part of a common roadway Internet Protocol (IP) wide area network.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the network device is provided by the roadside apparatus.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving, at the roadside apparatus, real-time event data over the mobile IP network from the particular vehicle node, the event data being indicative of one or more real-time events associated with the particular vehicle node.

13. The method of claim 12, in which the real-time event data from the particular vehicle loan comprises the location and direction information upon which the predictive identification of the specific neighboring roadside apparatus is at least in part based.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting real-time command data over the mobile IP network to vehicle subsystems of the particular vehicle, to control motion of the particular vehicle in real-time.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein communications over the mobile IP network communication is via User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), Secure RTP (SRTP), or Real-Time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP).

16. A system comprising multiple roadside apparatuses installed along a road network, each respective roadside apparatus being configured to:

dynamically establish a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) network with a plurality of vehicle nodes provided by respective road vehicles traveling on the road network within a range of control of the respective roadside apparatus;

receive location and direction information about a particular vehicle corresponding to a particular one of the plurality of vehicle nodes;

based at least in part on the location and direction information, predictively identifying a specific neighboring roadside apparatus whose range of control is next to be entered by the particular vehicle node;

communicate to the specific neighboring roadside apparatus handover information that indicate predicted entry of the particular vehicle into a range of control of the specific neighboring roadside apparatus,

the specific neighboring roadside apparatus being configured to connect communicatively with the particular vehicle node, based on the handover information, before disconnection of the particular vehicle node from the roadside apparatus from which the handover information is received.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the roadside apparatuses are configured to transfer to the specific neighboring roadside apparatus a data session between the respective roadside apparatus and the particular vehicle node.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the roadside apparatus are configured to establish between them an Internet Protocol (IP) wide area network (WAN), and to communicate the handover information over the IP WAN.