Vehicle Relay Communication for Locating and Updating Aging Hardware
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vehicles with aging hardware are unable to communicate with servers due to unsupported cellular networks, leading to challenges in locating and updating software.
Innovation Solution
A Vehicle Communication (VC) System that utilizes Digital Communications Modules (DCM) for shortwave radio and Bluetooth to identify nearby vehicles and relay location and software update information, enabling communication between vehicles to assist in locating and updating vehicles with aging components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If vehicles use aging cellular network components (e.g., 3G modem) for communication with the server, then the vehicle can communicate with the server, but the vehicle becomes unable to communicate with the server when the network no longer supports the aging component
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces nearby vehicles as intermediary nodes to relay communications between the target vehicle and the server. When a vehicle with aging hardware cannot directly communicate with the server, nearby vehicles with supported hardware components act as mediators to forward location and software update information, thereby maintaining communication reliability without requiring the aging vehicle to have supported network components.
2Productivity
If the server directly transmits software updates to vehicles, then software updates can be delivered efficiently, but the server cannot reach vehicles with aging hardware that are no longer supported by the cellular network
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs nearby vehicles as intermediaries to deliver software updates to vehicles with aging hardware. The server transmits updates to nearby vehicles first, which then relay the updates to the target vehicle using peer-to-peer communication mechanisms, ensuring both efficient delivery and reliability for unsupported devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables vehicles to assist each other in receiving software updates. Nearby vehicles with supported hardware components voluntarily participate in relaying updates to aging vehicles, creating a self-service update distribution network that extends server reachability without requiring direct server-to-aging-vehicle connections.
3Measurement precision
If vehicles report location periodically to the server, then location tracking is maintained, but the server cannot locate vehicles with aging hardware that can no longer communicate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses nearby vehicles as intermediaries to report the location of target vehicles with aging hardware to the server. Instead of requiring the aging vehicle to directly communicate its location, nearby vehicles observe and relay the location information, maintaining both the precision of location tracking and the reliability of communication with unsupported devices.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided are system, method, and device for automatically manage communications between vehicles. According to embodiments, the system may include: a memory storage storing computer-executable instructions; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory storage, wherein the at least one processor may be configured to execute the instructions to: receive an identification of a target vehicle from a server; obtain an identification of a nearby vehicle from the nearby vehicle; determine whether the identification of the target vehicle matches the identification of the nearby vehicle; and in response to determining that the identification of the target vehicle matches the identification of the nearby vehicle, transmit a current time and location to the server.