Vehicle Multipath Proxy for Stable Cellular Connectivity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing communication systems for vehicles face challenges in efficiently utilizing multiple cellular network connections to maintain a stable internet connection while the vehicle moves, leading to potential drops in connectivity and inefficient data transfer.
Innovation Solution
A communications system comprising a mobile transport layer proxy on the vehicle and a parent transport layer proxy remote from the vehicle, utilizing a multipath transport layer protocol to establish and manage multiple data connections with different base stations, ensuring seamless handover and efficient data transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the vehicle uses a single cellular network connection, then the device complexity is reduced, but the connection stability deteriorates when moving between base stations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple cellular network connections into a single unified communication interface by introducing a virtual network interface that aggregates multiple physical connections. This allows the system to maintain connection stability through multiple base stations while presenting a simplified single interface to the operating system, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a virtual network interface as an intermediary layer between the multiple physical cellular connections and the upper network stack. This mediator aggregates and manages multiple connections transparently, providing stable connectivity without exposing the complexity of multiple underlying connections to the rest of the system.
2Reliability
If the vehicle connects to multiple base stations simultaneously, then the connection stability improves, but the routing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple routing decisions into a single unified routing interface by aggregating multiple base station connections through the virtual network interface. This eliminates the need for complex routing logic to manage individual connections to different base stations, as the virtual interface handles path selection internally.
3Ease of operation
If the vehicle shares internet connection among passengers, then the ease of operation improves, but the connection stability deteriorates due to signal interference
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple cellular connections into a single virtual interface that provides both ease of operation (single connection point for passengers) and connection stability (aggregated bandwidth from multiple base stations). The virtual interface presents a unified connection that maintains stability while simplifying user interaction.
Data Source
AI summary
A communications system for providing data communication to a vehicle (10), the communications system including: a mobile transport layer proxy (150) located on the vehicle; a parent transport layer proxy (170) located remote from the vehicle; the mobile transport layer proxy being configured to: accept a transport layer connection with a host device (32, 33), the transport layer connection being addressed to a remote server (160); and communicate with the parent transport layer proxy via multiple paths using a multipath transport layer protocol to communicate on behalf of the host device whilst identifying as the mobile transport layer proxy; and the parent transport layer proxy being configured to: communicate with the mobile transport layer proxy using the multipath transport layer protocol; and communicate with the remote server whilst identifying as the parent transport layer proxy to communicate on behalf of the mobile transport layer proxy to permit the host device to communicate with the remote server.