Ground system for vehicle data distribution

• US 9,893,976 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2015
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gogo Business Aviation LLC (GOGO Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Gogo LLC (GOGO Incorporated)
• Inventors: Wahler, Ronald A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lim, Steven
• Assistant Examiner(s): Adnan, Muhammad
• Application Number:
  US14/797,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20150319073A1
• Time in Patent Office: 946 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/34 Route searching; Route guidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• 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 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/024 Guidance services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• 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]

Abstract

Techniques for delivering data or information to a vehicle include a method of distributing information to a vehicle. Information corresponding to the vehicle is first received while the vehicle is en route between an origination point and a destination from a computing device that is not being transported by the vehicle. A first computing device or a second computing device determines a destination port at which the vehicle is to arrive, the destination port included in a plurality of ports at which vehicles arrive and from which vehicles depart. The first computing devices causes data to be routed to a third computing device communicatively connected to the first computing device, the third computing device corresponding to the destination port, and at least one of the data or the third party computing device determined based on the information received at the first computing device.

Claims

1. A ground-based communications system for distributing information to a vehicle, comprising:

a plurality of access networks, each of which is fixedly disposed at a different location and supports respective one or more wireless communication channels for communicating with an on-board data distribution device fixedly connected to the vehicle while the vehicle is en route between an origination point and a destination point; and

one or more computing devices including communicative connections to the plurality of access networks and communicative connections to a set of port networks, each port network included in the set of port networks being fixedly disposed at a different port at which vehicles arrive and from which vehicles depart, and the one or more computing devices configured to;

receive, from a computing device that is not being transported by the vehicle and that is not included in the ground-based communications system, information corresponding to the vehicle while the vehicle is en route between the origination point and the destination point;

receive, from the on-board data distribution device via one of the wireless communication channels while the vehicle is en route between the origination point and the destination point, data corresponding to a destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive, the destination port included in the different ports at which vehicles arrive and from which vehicles depart;

determine, based upon the data received from the on-board data distribution device, the destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive; and

route, via the communicative connections to the set of port networks, particular data to a particular port network for delivery of the particular data, via the particular port network upon arrival of the vehicle at the destination port, to the on-board data distribution device fixedly connected to the vehicle, the particular port network included in the set of port networks and fixedly disposed at the destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive, and at least one of the particular data or the particular port network determined based on the information received from the computing device that is not being transported by the vehicle and that is not included in the ground-based communications system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the particular data is routed to each of a plurality of port networks respectively corresponding to each of more than one port of the different ports, the plurality of port networks including the particular port network fixedly disposed at the destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is an aircraft.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the information corresponding to the vehicle comprises information corresponding to at least one of;

equipment fixedly connected to the vehicle;

cargo aboard the vehicle;

a travel route of the vehicle;

a request generated by a remote user of the ground-based communications system;

or

information generated by the remote user; and

the particular data comprises at least one of;

vehicle location monitoring, vehicle system monitoring, vehicle navigation, vehicle operation, vehicle safety, media content, entertainment content, data generated by an end-user of the ground-based communications system, data generated by an administrator of the ground-based communications system, a request generated by the end-user, or a request generated by the administrator.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the particular port network is a private network.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data corresponding to the destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive comprises data indicating the destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the data corresponding to the destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive comprises data indicative of a time at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive at the destination port; and

the particular data is routed to the particular port network at the destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive based on the predicted time of arrival of the vehicle at the destination port.

8. A system of computing devices for distributing information to a vehicle, the system comprising:

a ground-based communications network having (i) communicative connections to a plurality of access networks, each of which supports respective one or more wireless communication channels for communicating with an on-board data distribution device that is fixedly connected to the vehicle, and (ii) communicative connections to a set of port networks disposed at respective, different ports at which vehicles arrive and from which vehicles depart, the ground-based communications network configured to;

receive, from a computing device that is not being transported by the vehicle and that is excluded from the ground-based communications network, and while the vehicle is en route between an origination point and a destination point, information corresponding to the vehicle and determine, based on the received information, particular data that is to be delivered to the on-board data distribution device that is fixedly connected to the vehicle;

receive, from the on-board data distribution device via a wireless communication channel included in the one or more wireless communication channels of a respective access network, and while the vehicle is en route between the origination point and the destination point, data indicative of a destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive, the destination port included in the different ports at which vehicles arrive and from which vehicles depart; and

cause the particular data to be routed to a particular port network disposed at the destination port so that the particular data is available for delivery, via the particular port network, to the on-board data distribution device upon arrival of the vehicle at the destination port.

9. The system of computing devices of claim 8, wherein the destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive comprises an updated destination port of the vehicle after the vehicle has departed the origination point, the updated destination port being different than an original destination port of the vehicle.

10. The system of computing devices of claim 8, wherein the particular data is routed to each of a plurality of port networks respectively corresponding to each of more than one port of the different ports, the plurality of port networks including the particular port network.

11. The system of computing devices of claim 8, wherein the vehicle is an aircraft.

12. The system of computing devices of claim 8, wherein:

the information corresponding to the vehicle comprises information corresponding to at least one of;

equipment fixedly connected to the vehicle;

cargo aboard the vehicle;

a travel route of the vehicle;

a request generated by a remote user of the system;

or

information generated by the remote user; and

the particular data comprises at least one of;

vehicle location monitoring, vehicle system monitoring, vehicle navigation, vehicle operation, vehicle safety, media content, entertainment content, data generated by an end-user of the ground-based communications system, data generated by an administrator of the ground-based communications system, a request generated by the end-user, or a request generated by the administrator.

13. The system of computing devices of claim 8, wherein at least one of the particular port network or the ground-based communications network is a private network.

14. The system of computing devices of claim 8, wherein:

the ground-based communications network is further configured to receive data indicative of a time at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive at the destination port; and

the particular data is routed to the particular port network at the destination port at which the vehicle is predicted to arrive based on the predicted time of arrival of the vehicle at the destination port.