Vehicle tracking, communication and fleet management system
US6611755B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 19, 1999 |
| Grant date | Aug 26, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 19, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04W84/00
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A vehicle fleet management information system identifies location and direction of movement of each vehicle in a fleet in real-time, and automatically reports such information, as well as status of predetermined events in which the vehicle is engaged, directly to the fleet manager. Each fleet vehicle has an assigned time slot to transmit its reporting information over a communications network without interfering with transmissions from other vehicles in their own respective time slots. A timing control phase lock loop (PLL) provides precise time synchronization for timing corrections from a global positioning system (GPS) based time reference. A dual band full-duplex interface of the network has TDMA on one-half and broadcast on the other half. Microprocessor time processing units in components of the network perform precise clock synchronization. Space diversity performed on received vehicle transmitted messages avoids data corruption. Different vehicles have different periodic transmission intervals, by dynamically allocating the slots for various update rates. Auxiliary reporting slots enable prompt reporting of important data by the respective vehicle transmitters independent o…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.