CN115250426A

CN115250426A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN115250426A
Application number: CN202110454180.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 许少峰
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-04-26
Filing date: 2021-04-26
Publication date: 2022-10-28

Abstract

The application discloses a communication method and device, relates to the technical field of communication, and is used for solving the problem of missed transaction when a plurality of vehicles located on the same or different lanes at the same moment carry out ETC payment. The communication method comprises the following steps: the roadside apparatus acquiring vehicle information including position information of at least two vehicles located in at least one lane at the same time; the road side equipment dispatches at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, and the at least two narrow beams correspond to the at least two vehicles one to one; the roadside device activates the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively; the roadside apparatus communicates with the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus.

Background

An Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system is an international advanced road and bridge electronic toll collection technology. In China, with the continuous development of highway construction, ETC is gradually accepted by highway operators and vehicle users due to the characteristics of high automation degree, no parking, rapid passing and the like. With the rapid increase of the traffic volume, the ETC toll mode of mainline free fluidization becomes more and more important. The ETC charging mode with the free fluidization of the main line is a full-automatic charging mode which can automatically complete the charging processing process on a charging type highway by adopting the special short range communication (DSRC) technology to interact between a Road Side Unit (RSU) and an on-board unit (OBU) without the intervention of a driver and a toll collector.

As shown in fig. 1, ETC systems typically include a controller, a plurality of RSUs and OBUs. Each RSU corresponds to one lane, each RSU may be configured to transmit one narrow beam, and the controller controls, in a polling manner, the RSUs to respectively transmit a Beacon Service Table (BST) through the respective narrow beams, where the BST is used to indicate related information such as an identifier of the RSU. For each RSU, if a vehicle passes through the lane corresponding to the RSU, the controller may control the RSU to activate an on-board unit (OBU) on the vehicle through the corresponding narrow beam, and establish communication with the OBU, thereby performing tracking and service transaction of the vehicle. Only a portion of the narrow beams of the RSU are shown in fig. 1.

However, when the controller polls and controls the plurality of RSUs, only one RSU can work at the same time, and thus only one RSU can communicate with the OBU, which may cause that when a plurality of vehicles pass through at the same time, only one RSU in the plurality of RSUs is in a working state, and other RSUs do not work, so that other RSUs cannot establish communication with the OBU of the vehicle on the corresponding lane, and further cannot perform tracking and service transaction on other vehicles, thereby causing a problem of transaction leakage.

Disclosure of Invention

The application discloses a communication method and device for solving the problem of missed transactions when a plurality of vehicles located on the same or different lanes at the same moment carry out ETC payment.

The technical scheme is as follows:

in a first aspect, a communication method is provided, and the communication method includes: the roadside device acquires vehicle information, wherein the vehicle information comprises position information of at least two vehicles, the position information can comprise the positions of lanes where the vehicles are located, the distances from the roadside device to the vehicles and the like, and the at least two vehicles are located in at least one lane at the same time; the roadside device schedules at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, wherein the at least two narrow beams correspond to the at least two vehicles one to one; the roadside device activating the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively; the roadside apparatus communicates with the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively.

In the technical scheme, the roadside device can acquire the vehicle information of at least two vehicles which are located in the same lane or different lanes at the same time, and schedule at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, namely, one narrow beam is scheduled for each vehicle in the same lane or different lanes, and the OBU on the vehicle is activated and communicated based on the narrow beam corresponding to each vehicle, that is, the roadside device can simultaneously communicate with the OBUs of a plurality of vehicles which are located in the same lane or different lanes at the same time through a plurality of narrow beams, when the method is applied to ETC payment, the problem of transaction leakage when the vehicles are located in the same lane or different lanes at the same time can be solved, and the communication reliability and the communication efficiency when the vehicles pass through the same lane or different lanes at the same time are further improved.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the at least one lane includes a first lane, the at least two vehicles includes a first vehicle and a second vehicle, the vehicle information is used to indicate that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are located in the first lane, and the roadside device schedules at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, including: the roadside device schedules a first narrow beam and a second narrow beam for the first road, the first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle, the second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle. In the possible implementation manner, the roadside device can respectively activate the OBUs on the two vehicles through the two narrow beams and respectively communicate with the OBUs on the two vehicles through the two narrow beams, so that the problem of transaction leakage when the two vehicles are located in the same lane is solved, and the communication reliability and the communication efficiency when the two vehicles on the same lane pass through are further improved.

In one possible implementation of the first aspect, the at least one lane includes a first lane and a second lane, the at least two vehicles include a first vehicle and a second vehicle, the vehicle information is used to indicate that the first vehicle is located in the first lane and the second vehicle is located in the second lane, and the roadside device schedules at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, including: the roadside device scheduling a first narrow beam for the first road, the first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle; and the roadside device schedules a second narrow beam for the second lane, the second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle. In the possible implementation manner, the roadside device can respectively activate the OBUs on the two vehicles through the two narrow beams and respectively communicate with the OBUs on the two vehicles through the two narrow beams, so that the problem of transaction leakage when the two vehicles are located in different lanes is solved, and the communication reliability and the communication efficiency when the two vehicles pass through different lanes are further improved.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the obtaining, by the roadside device, vehicle information includes: the roadside apparatus scans at least one lane managed by the roadside apparatus through a wide beam to acquire vehicle information. The wide beam may cover a plurality of lanes managed by the roadside apparatus at the same time, and the narrow beam may cover only one lane. In the possible implementation manner, the roadside device may scan at least one lane managed by the roadside device through the wide beam to acquire vehicle information, so that the roadside device may schedule a plurality of narrow beams based on the vehicle information, and communicate with OBUs of a plurality of vehicles located on the same or different lanes at the same time through the plurality of narrow beams, thereby solving a problem of missed transactions when the plurality of vehicles are located on the same or different lanes at the same time.

In one possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the roadside apparatus may include a radar and a roadside unit, and when the radar and the roadside unit are integrated together, the radar and the roadside unit may share the same hardware unit (e.g., a transceiving channel, a processor, a memory, and the like), where the wide beam and the narrow beam are transmitted alternately. In the possible implementation manner, when the radar and the roadside unit are integrated together and share the same hardware unit, the size of roadside equipment can be reduced, resource sharing is realized, the integration level of the roadside equipment is improved, further the wide beam and the narrow beam are alternately transmitted, and the radar and the roadside unit are not influenced by each other when working simultaneously.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the vehicle information is further used to indicate a distance between each on-board unit of the on-board units of the at least two vehicles and the roadside device, and the roadside device activates the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams respectively, including: for each vehicle-mounted unit, the roadside device activates the vehicle-mounted unit when the distance between the vehicle-mounted unit and the roadside device meets a preset distance range through a narrow beam corresponding to the vehicle in which the vehicle-mounted unit is located. The preset distance range may be preset, for example, the preset distance range may be 10 meters to 20 meters. In the possible implementation manner, the roadside device can activate the vehicle-mounted unit when the distance between the vehicle-mounted unit and the roadside device meets the preset distance range through the narrow beam corresponding to the vehicle-mounted unit, so that the activation success rate and efficiency can be improved, and the vehicle-mounted unit and the roadside device can be ensured to be successfully communicated.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, any two narrow beams of the at least two narrow beams are orthogonal, where the beam orthogonality may mean that an orthogonal gain when the two beams are simultaneously used for communication is greater than 15dB, or a Bit Error Rate (BER) when the two beams are simultaneously used for communication is less than 10 ^-6 . In the possible implementation manner, the plurality of beams can be ensured to be independent from each other and not influenced from each other.

In one possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the roadside apparatus communicating with on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively, includes: for each on-board unit of the on-board units of the at least two vehicles, the roadside device performs ETC communication with the on-board unit through the narrow beam corresponding to the on-board unit so as to complete automatic toll collection of the on-board unit. In the possible implementation manner, the roadside device performs ETC communication with the on-board unit through the narrow beam corresponding to the on-board unit, so that automatic charging of vehicles is realized, and charging efficiency is improved.

In a second aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: an acquisition unit configured to acquire vehicle information including position information of at least two vehicles located in at least one lane at a same time; the scheduling unit is used for scheduling at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, and the at least two narrow beams correspond to the at least two vehicles one by one; the scheduling unit is also used for activating the vehicle-mounted units of at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams respectively; and the communication unit is used for communicating with the vehicle-mounted units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams respectively.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the at least one lane includes a first lane, the at least two vehicles include a first vehicle and a second vehicle, the vehicle information is used to indicate that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are located in the first lane, and the scheduling unit is used to: a first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle and a second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle are scheduled for the first lane.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the at least one lane includes a first lane and a second lane, the at least two vehicles include a first vehicle and a second vehicle, the vehicle information is used for indicating that the first vehicle is located in the first lane and the second vehicle is located in the second lane, and the scheduling unit is used for: scheduling a first narrow beam for the first lane, the first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle; a second narrow beam is scheduled for the second lane, the second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle.

In one possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the communication apparatus further includes: a scanning unit for scanning at least one lane managed by the communication device by a wide beam having a width larger than that of the narrow beam to acquire vehicle information and transmitting the vehicle information to the scheduling unit.

In one possible implementation of the second aspect, the wide beam and the narrow beam are transmitted alternately.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the vehicle information is further used for indicating a distance between each of the on-board units of the at least two vehicles and the communication device, and the scheduling unit is further used for: and for each vehicle-mounted unit, activating the vehicle-mounted unit when the distance between the vehicle-mounted unit and the communication device meets a preset distance range through the narrow beam corresponding to the vehicle in which the vehicle-mounted unit is positioned.

In one possible implementation of the second aspect, any two of the at least two narrow beams are orthogonal.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the communication unit is configured to: and for each on-board unit of the on-board units of the at least two vehicles, carrying out ETC communication with the on-board unit through the narrow beam corresponding to the on-board unit so as to finish automatic charging of the on-board unit.

In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, where the apparatus includes an antenna array, a plurality of transceiving channels coupled to the antenna array, and a processor, where the communication apparatus is configured to perform a communication method provided in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect through the antenna array, the plurality of transceiving channels, and the processor.

It is understood that any one of the apparatuses provided above can be used to perform the corresponding method provided above, and therefore, the advantageous effects achieved by the apparatuses can refer to the advantageous effects in the corresponding methods provided above, and will not be described herein again.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an ETC system provided in the prior art;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a roadside apparatus scheduling a narrow beam according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another roadside device scheduling narrow beams according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of another roadside device scheduling narrow beams according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of another roadside apparatus scheduling narrow beams according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of alternate transmission of multiple narrow beams and wide beams according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a roadside apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another roadside apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another roadside apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a alone, A and B together, and B alone, wherein A and B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple. In addition, the embodiments of the present application use the words "first", "second", etc. to distinguish between similar items or items having substantially the same function or effect. For example, the first threshold and the second threshold are only used for distinguishing different thresholds, and the order of the thresholds is not limited. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the words "first," "second," and the like do not limit the number or order of execution.

It is noted that the words "exemplary" or "such as" are used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" or "e.g.," is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, use of the word "exemplary" or "such as" is intended to present concepts related in a concrete fashion.

The technical scheme that this application embodiment provided can be applied to among the communication system including roadside device and on-board unit, and this communication system can include Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) communication system, and this ETC communication system can be applied to on the highway, for example, this ETC communication system can install on the portal frame of highway for to vehicle through the portal frame fix a position and charge etc..

As shown in fig. 2, a schematic structural diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown, where the communication system includes: a roadside device and a plurality of on-board units (OBUs). The roadside device may be operative to scan vehicle information of the plurality of OBUs (e.g., the vehicle information may include location information, lane information, speed information, etc. of the vehicle). After acquiring the vehicle information, the roadside device may schedule multiple narrow beams for waking up the multiple OBUs based on the vehicle information, and perform communication with the multiple OBUs based on the multiple narrow beams, for example, the roadside device may communicate with the multiple OBUs by using a Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) technology.

Optionally, the roadside apparatus may include a radar and a roadside unit (RSU). In a possible embodiment, the radar and the RSU may be integrated in one roadside device, and the radar and the RSU may share the same hardware units (e.g., transceiver channels, processors and memories, etc.). In another possible implementation, the radar and the RSU may also be deployed separately, each using a respective hardware unit. Fig. 2 illustrates an example in which the radar and the RSU are integrated in one roadside device.

In particular, the radar may be used to emit a wide beam that may simultaneously cover all lanes on the same highway and perform vehicle detection and localization for each of all lanes. The RSU may be configured to transmit a plurality of narrow beams, which may correspond to all lanes on the same highway one-to-one, or may correspond to some of the lanes on the same highway one-to-one. The plurality of OBUs may include OBUs on a plurality of lanes, and when the RSU communicates with the plurality of OBUs simultaneously, the RSU may schedule one or more narrow beams for each lane in which the plurality of OBUs are located and activate an OBU on a corresponding lane based on the corresponding narrow beam; the RSU may then also communicate with the plurality of OBUs via the plurality of narrow beams, respectively, simultaneously.

Further, the communication system may further comprise a controller operable to control the RSU. The controller may be integrated with the RSU, or may not be integrated with the RSU, which is not limited in this application.

Fig. 3 is a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the communication method is applied to the communication system, and may be specifically executed by a roadside device in the communication system. The roadside apparatus may be configured to manage at least one lane, which may include one or more lanes, and the following description will be made by taking an example in which the at least one lane includes a plurality of lanes. As shown in fig. 3, the communication method includes the following steps.

S301: a roadside apparatus acquires vehicle information including position information of at least two vehicles located in at least one lane at the same time.

The vehicle information may include one or more types of information related to the vehicle, for example, the vehicle information may include position information of the vehicle, and the position information may include a lane position where the vehicle is located, a distance from the roadside device, and the like. The vehicle information may also include speed information of the vehicle, which may include a speed of the vehicle.

In addition, the at least two vehicles may include two vehicles or more than two vehicles, for example, the at least two vehicles may include 4 vehicles. The at least two vehicles being located in the at least one lane at the same time may mean that the at least two vehicles are located in the same or different lanes at the same time, i.e. that the at least two vehicles are located in a certain position or a certain range of positions of the at least one lane at the same time. For example, in a high-speed gantry scenario, that the at least two vehicles are located in at least one lane at the same time may mean that the at least two vehicles simultaneously pass through one lane under the high-speed gantry.

Further, the at least one lane may include one lane or a plurality of lanes. The at least two vehicles being located in the at least one lane at the same time may include the following two cases: when the at least one lane includes one lane, the at least two vehicles are both located in the one lane; when the at least one lane comprises two or more lanes, the at least two vehicles are respectively positioned in the two or more lanes. For example, the at least one lane may include two lanes, and the at least two vehicles may include two vehicles respectively located in the two lanes.

In one possible embodiment, the roadside apparatus may detect a plurality of lanes managed by the roadside apparatus through a wide beam to obtain the vehicle information. Optionally, the roadside device may include a radar that may detect vehicles in the plurality of lanes through a wide beam to determine position information of at least two vehicles located in at least one lane at the same time, that is, the roadside device acquires the vehicle information.

For example, the receiving and transmitting angle of the wide beam may be greater than a first preset angle (for example, the first preset angle may be 90 ° or 120 °), or the horizontal width and the vertical width of the wide beam may each be greater than a preset width, and the like. It should be noted that, the wide beam is referred to as a narrow beam, and the width of the wide beam may be larger than that of the narrow beam. The wide beam may cover a plurality of lanes managed by the roadside apparatus at the same time, and the narrow beam may cover only one lane.

Optionally, when the radar acquires the vehicle information of the at least one lane managed by the roadside device through the wide beam, the radar may periodically acquire the vehicle information through the wide beam, or aperiodically acquire the vehicle information through the wide beam, which is not limited in this embodiment of the application.

S302: the roadside device schedules at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, and the at least two narrow beams correspond to the at least two vehicles one to one.

The vehicle information may be used to indicate at least one lane in which the at least two vehicles are located, for example, the vehicle information may include an identifier of the at least one lane, and the identifier of one lane may be used to identify the lane, so that the roadside device may determine the at least one lane from a plurality of lanes managed by the roadside device according to the identifier of the at least one lane.

Since the at least one lane may include one lane or a plurality of lanes, the following describes in detail a process of the roadside device scheduling at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information when the at least two vehicles are located in the one lane and the at least two vehicles are located in the plurality of lanes, respectively.

In the first case: the vehicle information is used to indicate one lane in which the at least two vehicles are located. The distance between the at least two vehicles may be less than or equal to the coverage distance range of the narrow beam. Specifically, the roadside device may schedule at least two narrow beams for the one lane, where the scheduling may also be referred to as allocating, that is, allocating at least two narrow beams for the one lane, where the at least two narrow beams correspond to at least two vehicles on the one lane one to one. For example, assuming that the at least one lane includes a first lane, the at least two vehicles include a first vehicle and a second vehicle, the vehicle information indicating that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are located in the first lane, the roadside device schedules a first narrow beam and a second narrow beam for the first lane, the first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle, the second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle.

The roadside apparatus in the present application may be simultaneously used to transmit multiple narrow beams. If the number of the narrow beams is greater than or equal to the number of the lanes managed by the roadside device, each lane of the lanes may correspond to a narrow beam, where the lane corresponding to a narrow beam may mean that the narrow beam covers the lane, and the narrow beam corresponding to each lane may be randomly set; if the number of the plurality of narrow beams is smaller than the number of the plurality of lanes, a part of the plurality of lanes may correspond to the plurality of narrow beams one to one, where the part of the lanes may be any one or more of the plurality of lanes. In the following, for the two cases, taking the example that the at least one lane includes a first lane, and the at least two vehicles include a first vehicle and a second vehicle, a process of the roadside device scheduling at least two narrow beams for the first lane is described in detail.

In one embodiment, each lane of the plurality of lanes managed by the roadside device corresponds to a narrow beam, for example, the plurality of lanes includes a first lane and a second lane, the first lane corresponds to a first narrow beam, and the second lane corresponds to a second narrow beam. Specifically, the roadside device may schedule a first narrow beam corresponding to a first lane for a first vehicle of the first lane, and schedule a second narrow beam corresponding to a second lane for a second vehicle of the first lane. For example, as shown in fig. 4, assuming that the number of the plurality of narrow beams and the plurality of lanes are all 3, the 3 lanes are CH1 to CH3, the 3 narrow beams are B1 to B3, the CH1 to CH3 are respectively in one-to-one correspondence with the B1 to B3, the first lane is CH1, and the first vehicle and the second vehicle on the first lane are respectively represented as OBU1 and OBU2, the roadside device may schedule B1 corresponding to CH1 for OBU1 in CH1, and schedule B2 corresponding to CH2 for OBU2 in CH 1.

In another embodiment, some lanes of the multiple lanes managed by the roadside apparatus are in one-to-one correspondence with the multiple narrow beams, for example, the multiple lanes include a first lane, a second lane and a third lane, the first lane has no corresponding narrow beam, the second lane corresponds to the first narrow beam, and the third lane corresponds to the second narrow beam. Specifically, the roadside device may schedule a first narrow beam corresponding to a second lane for a first vehicle on a first lane, and schedule a second narrow beam corresponding to a third lane for a second vehicle on the first lane, where the third lane is any lane with a narrow beam and no vehicle on the lane. For example, as shown in fig. 5, assuming that the number of the lanes is 3, the 3 lanes are CH1 to CH3, the number of the narrow beams is 2, the 2 narrow beams are B1 and B2, CH2 and CH3 correspond to B1 and B2 one-to-one, respectively, the first lane is CH1, and the first vehicle and the second vehicle on the first lane are represented as OBU1 and OBU2, respectively, the process of the roadside device scheduling the narrow beams for the OBU1 and the OBU2 on the first lane may be: the roadside device may schedule B1 corresponding to CH2 for OBU1 in CH1 and schedule B2 corresponding to CH3 for OBU2 in CH 1.

In the second case: the vehicle information is used for indicating at least two lanes in which the at least two vehicles are respectively located. For example, the at least two lanes include a first lane and a second lane, the at least two vehicles include a first vehicle and a second vehicle, the vehicle information indicates that the first vehicle is located in the first lane and the second vehicle is located in the second lane, then the roadside device may schedule a first narrow beam for the first lane, the first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle, and the roadside device schedules a second narrow beam for the second lane, the second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle.

Similarly, since there may be a one-to-one correspondence between the multiple lanes managed by the roadside apparatus and the multiple narrow beams, or there may be a one-to-one correspondence between some of the multiple lanes and the multiple narrow beams. For example, as shown in fig. 6, assuming that the number of the narrow beams and the lanes are 5, the 5 lanes are denoted as CH1 to CH5, the 5 narrow beams are denoted as B1 to B5, and the lanes correspond to the narrow beams one to one, for example, CH1 to CH5 correspond to B1 to B5 one to one, respectively. Alternatively, as shown in fig. 7, assuming that the number of the lanes is 5, the 5 lanes are denoted as CH1 to CH5, the number of the narrow beams is 4, and the 4 narrow beams are denoted as B1 to B4, some of the lanes in the lanes may correspond to the narrow beams one to one, for example, CH2 to CH5 correspond to B1 to B4 one to one, respectively. The following describes the process of the roadside device scheduling a first narrow beam for the first lane and a second narrow beam for the second lane in detail for the two cases.

In one embodiment, each lane of the multiple lanes managed by the roadside device has a narrow beam, for example, the multiple lanes include a first lane and a second lane, the first lane corresponds to the first narrow beam, and the second lane corresponds to the second narrow beam, so that the roadside device may schedule the first narrow beam for a first vehicle of the first lane and the second narrow beam for a second vehicle of the second lane. For example, as shown in fig. 6, the lanes include 5 lanes and are denoted as CH1 to CH5, the narrow beams include B1 to B5, CH1 to CH5 are respectively corresponding to B1 to B5 one by one, and if the first lane is CH1, the second lane is CH2, and the first vehicle and the second vehicle are denoted as OBU1 and OBU2, respectively, the roadside device may schedule B1 corresponding to CH1 for OBU1 on CH1 and schedule B2 corresponding to CH2 for OBU2 on CH 2.

In another embodiment, a part of lanes of the lanes managed by the roadside device are in one-to-one correspondence with the narrow beams, for example, the lanes include a first lane, a second lane and a third lane, the first lane has no corresponding narrow beam, the second lane corresponds to the first narrow beam, the third lane corresponds to the second narrow beam, the roadside device may schedule a second narrow beam corresponding to the third lane for a first vehicle of the first lane, schedule a first narrow beam corresponding to the second lane for a second vehicle of the second lane, and the third lane is any lane having a narrow beam and no vehicle on the lane. For example, as shown in fig. 7, the lanes include 5 lanes and are denoted as CH1 to CH5, the narrow beams include 4 narrow beams and are denoted as B1 to B4, CH2 to CH5 correspond to B1 to B4 one by one, if the first lane is CH1, the second lane is CH2, the third lane is CH3, and the first vehicle and the second vehicle are denoted as OBU1 and OBU2, respectively, the roadside device may schedule B2 corresponding to CH3 for OBU1 on CH1 and schedule B1 corresponding to CH2 for OBU2 on CH 2.

Further, any two narrow beams of the plurality of narrow beams emitted by the roadside device may be mutually orthogonal, and any one narrow beam of the plurality of narrow beams may also be mutually orthogonal to the wide beam. Here, the beam orthogonality may mean that an orthogonal gain when two beams are simultaneously used for communication is greater than 15dB, or a Bit Error Rate (BER) when two beams are simultaneously used for communication is less than 10 ^-6 . The narrow beams set by the mode can ensure that the beams are independent from each other and are not influenced from each other.

S303: the roadside apparatus activates the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively.

The vehicle information may also be used to indicate a distance between each of at least two OBUs corresponding to the at least two vehicles and the roadside device. For each of the at least two OBUs, the process of the roadside device activating the OBU through the narrow beam corresponding to the vehicle in which the OBU is located may be: when the distance between the OBU and the roadside apparatus satisfies a preset distance range, the OBU is activated by the narrow beam. Since the roadside device may transmit multiple narrow beams simultaneously, the roadside device may simultaneously activate the at least two OBUs based on the at least two narrow beams.

It should be noted that the preset distance range may be set in advance, and may be set according to actual requirements, for example, the preset distance range may be 10 meters to 20 meters, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit specific values of the preset distance range.

Specifically, the roadside device may send activation information through a narrow beam corresponding to a vehicle in which the OBU is located when a distance between the OBU and the roadside device satisfies a preset distance range, where the activation information may include an activation signal, for example, the activation signal may be a square wave signal with a fixed frequency; further, the activation information may further include a Beacon Service Table (BST) of the roadside device, where the BST is used to indicate related information such as an identifier or an address of the roadside device. When the OBU receives the activation information, the OBU may perform a power-on operation after detecting the activation signal, and send a Vehicle Service Table (VST) to the roadside device according to the BST of the roadside device after the power-on operation, where the VST is used to indicate relevant information such as an identifier or an address of the OBU, for example, the identifier of the OBU may include vehicle identification information of the OBU. The roadside device may determine that the OBU activation was successful after receiving the VST.

S304: the roadside apparatus communicates with the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively.

Wherein the roadside apparatus communicating with the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively, may include: for each on-board unit of the on-board units of the at least two vehicles, the roadside device performs ETC communication with the on-board unit through the narrow beam corresponding to the on-board unit so as to complete automatic toll collection of the on-board unit.

In one possible embodiment, for each of the at least two OBUs, the VST that the OBU transmits to the roadside device during activation may include: the vehicle identification information of the OBU, for example, the vehicle identification information may include a license plate number of the vehicle, an identification number corresponding to the license plate number, a driving mileage of the vehicle, and a payment account number bound to the OBU.

Specifically, the specific process of the roadside device communicating with the OBU through the narrow beam corresponding to the OBU may be: when the roadside device receives the VST sent by the OBU, the roadside device can obtain the license plate number of the vehicle corresponding to the OBU, the identity card number corresponding to the license plate number and the driving mileage of the vehicle, and automatic charging of the vehicle is achieved based on the license plate number, the identity card number corresponding to the license plate number and the driving mileage of the vehicle. For example, the roadside device may send the license plate number, the identification number corresponding to the license plate number, and the driving range of the vehicle to a controller, so that the controller checks the license plate number and the identification number corresponding to the license plate number with the license plate number and the identification number corresponding to the license plate number stored in the controller in advance, after the check is correct, the controller calculates the driving cost of the vehicle according to the driving range of the vehicle, the controller generates a fee deduction command according to the driving cost, the controller sends the fee deduction command to the roadside device, the roadside device deducts the corresponding driving cost from the payment account number bound by the OBU based on the fee deduction command, and sends corresponding fee deduction information to the OBU after the deduction command is completed, thereby completing the dynamic charging process.

It should be noted that each narrow beam transmitted by the roadside device may be referred to as a different beam according to different content carried by the roadside device. For example, the narrow beam may be referred to as a wake-up beam when used to activate an OBU, and the narrow beam may be referred to as a traffic beam when used to communicate with the OBU. Wherein, the wake-up beam and the service beam can have the function of tracking the vehicle. For each service beam in the plurality of service beams, during a service transaction between the service beam and the OBU of the corresponding vehicle, the service beam always corresponds to the OBU of the vehicle (which may also be referred to as the service beam always pointing to the OBU of the vehicle). For example, when a vehicle changes from a first lane to a second lane, the service beam corresponding to the OBU of the vehicle also changes from the first lane to the second lane, that is, the service beam changes from covering the first lane to covering the second lane, and the service beam always tracks the vehicle to the end of communication.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application can be used for an ETC system, and the roadside device can simultaneously emit a plurality of narrow beams, so that the roadside device can simultaneously communicate with OBUs of a plurality of vehicles through the narrow beams when the vehicles are located in the same lane or different lanes simultaneously, the problem of missed transactions when the vehicles pass through the same lane or different lanes simultaneously is solved, and the reliability and the communication efficiency of communication when the vehicles pass through the same lane or different lanes simultaneously are improved.

Further, after the roadside device completes communication with the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, the roadside unit may release the narrow beams corresponding to the at least two vehicles. In the above possible implementation manner, the roadside unit releases the narrow beams corresponding to the at least two vehicles after completing the communication, so that the roadside unit is subsequently used for communicating with other OBUs, thereby improving the utilization rate of the at least two narrow beams, and further improving the communication efficiency when a plurality of vehicles are located at the same time or different times.

Further, the roadside apparatus may further include an RSU, which performs the above steps S302 to S304, and may acquire the vehicle information by receiving the vehicle information transmitted by the radar. Wherein the RSU may be integrated with the radar and share the same hardware unit. When the radar shares the same hardware unit with the RSU, the wide beam and the plurality of narrow beams may not overlap, i.e. the wide beam and the plurality of narrow beams are not able to be transmitted simultaneously. Alternatively, the wide beam and the plurality of narrow beams may be transmitted alternately, for example, as shown in fig. 8, the RSU may transmit the plurality of narrow beams at time 1 and time 3 and the radar may transmit the wide beam at time 2 and time 4 from time 1 to time 4. When the radar and the RSU share the same hardware unit, the overall size of the radar and the RSU is advantageously reduced, and installation and maintenance are facilitated.

For ease of understanding, the method provided in the embodiment of the present application is exemplified below by taking the structure of the roadside apparatus shown in fig. 9 as an example. As shown in fig. 9, the roadside apparatus includes: a plurality of antenna units, a Transmit (TX) analog multichannel, a Receive (RX) analog multichannel, a multichannel digital-to-analog converter (DAC), a multichannel analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a processing unit (for example, the processing unit may include a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and an integrated circuit (ASIC), etc.), a power supply unit (PWR), a network (ethernet) interface, and a memory (for example, the memory includes a Double Data Rate (DDR) random access memory, DDR).

For the receiving direction, a first part of the antenna units in the multiple antenna units may be used to receive information, the RX analog multi-channel may be used to forward the information received by the first part of the antenna units to the multi-channel ADC, the multi-channel ADC may be configured to perform analog-to-digital conversion on the information, and send the information after the analog-to-digital conversion to the processing unit, and the processing unit performs corresponding processing on the received information. For the transmission direction, the processing unit may send information to be transmitted to the multi-channel DAC, where the multi-channel DAC performs digital-to-analog conversion on the information to be transmitted, and sends the information to the TX analog multi-channel after the conversion, where the TX analog multi-channel sends the information to a second part of the antenna units, and the second part of the antenna units sends the information. In addition, the PWR can be used for supplying power for the roadside device, the network interface can be used for connecting a controller, and the DDR can be used for storing information of the roadside device.

Based on the roadside device shown in fig. 9, the process of the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may include: the roadside device acquires vehicle information through a wide beam emitted by an antenna unit, the vehicle information is transmitted to a processing unit after being sequentially subjected to corresponding processing of the RX analog multichannel and the multichannel ADC, the processing unit can schedule a narrow beam for each OBU of at least two OBUs passing through at least one lane at the same time based on the vehicle information, activation information of the at least two OBUs is transmitted to a second part of antenna units after sequentially passing through the multichannel DAC and the TX analog multichannel respectively, and the second part of antenna units transmit corresponding activation information through the narrow beam corresponding to each OBU so as to activate the at least two OBUs; after that, the processing unit may further transmit the charging information and the like of the at least two OBUs to the second partial antenna unit sequentially through the multi-channel DAC and the TX analog multi-channel, and the second partial antenna unit transmits the corresponding charging information through the narrow beam corresponding to each OBU to complete communication and the like with the at least two OBUs.

In the embodiment of the application, the roadside device can acquire the vehicle information of at least two vehicles which are located in at least one lane at the same time, a narrow beam is scheduled for each vehicle in the at least two vehicles according to the vehicle information, the OBU on the vehicle is activated based on the narrow beam corresponding to each vehicle, and communication is achieved.

The scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is introduced mainly from the interaction angle between the road side equipment and the OBU. It is understood that the roadside apparatus includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions in order to implement the above functions. Those skilled in the art should readily appreciate that the present application may be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software in conjunction with the roadside apparatus and related steps of the various examples described in connection with the embodiments herein. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the roadside device may be divided into functional modules according to the method example, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the module is schematic, and is only one logic function division, and another division manner may be available in actual implementation.

In the case of dividing each functional module by corresponding functions, fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a possible structure of the roadside apparatus related to the above embodiment, which includes: a scanning unit 401, an acquisition unit 402, a scheduling unit 403, and a communication unit 404. The scanning unit 401 is configured to support the roadside apparatus to perform S301 in the above method embodiment; the obtaining unit 402 is configured to support the roadside apparatus to execute S301 in the foregoing method embodiment; the scheduling unit 403 is configured to support the roadside apparatus to perform S302 in the foregoing method embodiment, and/or other technical processes described herein; the communication unit 404 is configured to support the roadside device to perform one or more steps of S303 and S304 in the above method embodiment.

In terms of hardware implementation, the scanning unit 401, the obtaining unit 402, and the communication unit 404 may be transceivers, and the transceivers may include receivers and transmitters; the scheduling unit 403 may be a processor.

In a specific implementation, the function of the scanning unit 401 may be implemented by radar; the above-mentioned acquiring unit 402, scheduling unit 403 and communication unit 404 may be integrated into one RSU.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a possible logical structure of the roadside apparatus according to the embodiment provided in the present application. The roadside apparatus includes: a transceiver 501, a processor 502 and a memory 503, the memory 503 being used to store the codes and data of the roadside apparatus. In an embodiment of the present application, the processor 502 is configured to control and manage the actions of the roadside device, for example, the processor 502 is configured to support the roadside device to perform S302 in the foregoing method embodiment, and/or other processes for the technology described herein. The transceiver 501 is used to obtain information and to support the roadside device to communicate, for example, the transceiver 501 is used to support the roadside device to perform S301, S303, and S304 in the above method embodiments, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein. Optionally, the roadside apparatus may further include a bus 504, and the transceiver 501, the processor 502, and the memory 503 are connected to each other through the bus 504.

The processor 502 may be, among other things, a central processing unit, a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, transistor logic, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor 502 may also be a combination that performs computing functions, including for example, one or more microprocessor combinations, digital signal processors and microprocessors, and the like. The bus 505 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The bus 504 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 11, but that does not indicate only one bus or one type of bus.

It should be noted that all relevant contents of each step related to the above method embodiment may be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and are not described herein again. Each device (such as a road side device and/or an on-board unit device) provided by the embodiment of the application is used for executing the function of the corresponding device in the embodiment, so that the same effect as the communication method can be achieved.

In another embodiment of the present application, a chip is further provided, where the chip may be built in a roadside device, and the structure of the chip may be as shown in fig. 9, fig. 10, or fig. 11, and is used to support the roadside device to perform one or more steps in the foregoing method embodiments.

In another embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a communication device, including an antenna array, a plurality of transceiving channels coupled to the antenna array, and a processor, wherein the communication device is configured to perform one or more steps of the above method embodiments through the antenna array, the plurality of transceiving channels, and the processor. The communication device may be a roadside apparatus, which may include a radar and an RSU, which share all hardware in the communication device.

In another embodiment of the present application, a communication system is further provided, where the communication system includes a roadside device and an on-board unit, and the roadside device may be the roadside device provided in fig. 9, 10, and 11, and is configured to perform one or more steps in the above method embodiments.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules or units is only one logical functional division, and there may be other divisions when actually implemented, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another device, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may be one physical unit or multiple physical units, that is, may be located in one place, or may be distributed in multiple different places. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

The integrated unit, if implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application may be essentially or partially contributed to by the prior art, or all or part of the technical solutions may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a road side device to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and various media capable of storing program codes.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above description is only an embodiment of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present disclosure should be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, the method comprising:

the roadside device acquires vehicle information, wherein the vehicle information comprises position information of at least two vehicles, and the at least two vehicles are located in at least one lane at the same time;

the road side equipment schedules at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, wherein the at least two narrow beams correspond to the at least two vehicles one by one;

the roadside device activating on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively;

the roadside apparatus communicates with on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one lane comprises a first lane, the at least two vehicles comprise a first vehicle and a second vehicle, the vehicle information indicates that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are located in the first lane,

the roadside device scheduling at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, including:

the roadside device schedules a first narrow beam and a second narrow beam for the first vehicle, the first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle, the second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one lane includes a first lane and a second lane, the at least two vehicles include a first vehicle and a second vehicle, the vehicle information indicates that the first vehicle is located in the first lane and the second vehicle is located in the second lane,

the roadside device scheduling a first narrow beam for the first road, the first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle; and is

The roadside device schedules a second narrow beam for the second lane, the second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the roadside apparatus acquires vehicle information, including:

the roadside device scans at least one lane managed by the roadside device through a wide beam having a width greater than that of the narrow beam to acquire the vehicle information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the wide beam and the narrow beam are transmitted alternately.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the vehicle information is further used to indicate a distance between each of the on-board units of the at least two vehicles and the roadside apparatus,

the roadside apparatus activating on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively, including:

for each vehicle-mounted unit, the roadside device activates the vehicle-mounted unit when the distance between the vehicle-mounted unit and the roadside device meets a preset distance range through a narrow beam corresponding to the vehicle in which the vehicle-mounted unit is located.

7. The method according to any of claims 1-6, wherein any two of the at least two narrow beams are orthogonal.

8. The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein the roadside device communicates with on-board units of the at least two vehicles via the at least two narrow beams, respectively, comprising:

for each on-board unit of the on-board units of the at least two vehicles, the roadside device performs ETC communication with the on-board unit through the narrow beam corresponding to the on-board unit so as to complete automatic charging of the on-board unit.

9. A communications apparatus, comprising:

an acquisition unit configured to acquire vehicle information including position information of at least two vehicles that are located in at least one lane at a same time;

the scheduling unit is used for scheduling at least two narrow beams according to the vehicle information, and the at least two narrow beams correspond to the at least two vehicles one to one;

a communication unit for activating the on-board units of the at least two vehicles by the at least two narrow beams, respectively;

the communication unit is further configured to communicate with the on-board units of the at least two vehicles through the at least two narrow beams, respectively.

10. The communication device of claim 9, wherein the at least one lane comprises a first lane, the at least two vehicles comprise a first vehicle and a second vehicle, the vehicle information is to indicate that the first vehicle and the second vehicle are located in the first lane, the scheduling unit is to:

scheduling a first narrow beam and a second narrow beam for the first lane, the first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle, the second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle.

11. The communication device of claim 9, wherein the at least one lane comprises a first lane and a second lane, wherein the at least two vehicles comprises a first vehicle and a second vehicle, wherein the vehicle information indicates that the first vehicle is located in the first lane and the second vehicle is located in the second lane, and wherein the scheduling unit is configured to:

scheduling a first narrow beam for the first lane, the first narrow beam corresponding to the first vehicle; scheduling a second narrow beam for the second lane, the second narrow beam corresponding to the second vehicle.

12. The communications device of claim 9, further comprising:

a scanning unit configured to scan at least one lane managed by the communication device with a wide beam having a width larger than that of the narrow beam to acquire vehicle information, and transmit the vehicle information to the scheduling unit.

13. The communications apparatus of claim 12, wherein the wide beam and the narrow beam are transmitted alternately.

14. A communication apparatus according to any of claims 9-13, wherein the vehicle information is further adapted to indicate a distance between each of the on-board units of the at least two vehicles and the communication apparatus, and the scheduling unit is adapted to:

and for each vehicle-mounted unit, activating the vehicle-mounted unit when the distance between the vehicle-mounted unit and the communication device meets a preset distance range through a narrow beam corresponding to the vehicle in which the vehicle-mounted unit is positioned.

15. The communication device according to any of claims 9-14, wherein any two of the at least two narrow beams are orthogonal.

16. The communication device according to any of claims 9-15, wherein the communication unit is configured to:

and for each on-board unit in the on-board units of the at least two vehicles, carrying out ETC communication with the on-board unit through the narrow beam corresponding to the on-board unit so as to complete automatic charging of the on-board unit.

17. An apparatus for communication, the apparatus comprising an antenna array, a plurality of transmit receive channels coupled to the antenna array, and a processor; wherein the apparatus is configured to perform the communication method of any one of claims 1-8 through the antenna array, the plurality of transceiving channels, and the processor.