KR101930160B1 - Method for providing an outisde entity with vehicle data based on property of the vehicle data and availabe networks, and an apparatus for said method - Google Patents

Abstract

A terminal apparatus for vehicle data collection according to the present invention comprises a storage unit for storing data generated in a vehicle and a data unit for acquiring data generated in the vehicle and transmitting the data to a designated remote location, And a storage unit for storing data in the storage unit, and an acquisition unit for allocating a category to the storage unit and selectively using the first communication network and the second communication network having different communication methods, And a transmitting unit for transmitting the data. The transmitting unit may be configured to transmit the data unit having the priority higher than a predetermined reference value among the untransmitted data units in the storage unit if only the first communication network is available, To a remote location, and if a second communication network is available, a data unit to which a category having a priority lower than the reference value is allocated among the untransmitted data units is also transmitted to the remote site using the second communication network do.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for externally providing vehicle data based on characteristics of a vehicle data and an available communication network,

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for acquiring various types of data generated during operation in a vehicle and providing the data to a specific server via a communication network outside the vehicle, for example, a public wireless communication network.

Various electronic control units (ECUs) for improving the convenience and safety of drivers are mounted on vehicles such as passenger cars and SUVs which have recently been released. The intercommunication between these electronic control units, Signal transmission between various sensors is mainly performed through a communication network mounted on the vehicle, for example, a CAN (Controller Area Network).

This specialized communication network, such as CAN, which is used in vehicles, is used for communication of control signals such as engines and transmissions for running status, diagnostic results, safety and convenience status of the vehicle, and running control.

Nowadays, in addition to the data related to the status and operation of the above-mentioned types of vehicles, various types of data are generated in the vehicles. For example, the AV device installed in the vehicle may play multimedia contents of the storage device, the black box device may photograph the vicinity of the vehicle while the vehicle is running, and the navigation device may receive the TPEG data and display the TPEG data on the screen .

In addition, a larger amount of data is generated by an improved driving convenience function of the vehicle, for example, an auto cruise function, compared with a conventional vehicle. For example, data is generated as the vehicle continues to photograph a lane ahead of the vehicle or a road.

As such, a significantly greater amount of data is generated in the vehicle than before, and this type of data also needs to be shared between the control devices by communication or transmitted over a communication network to a terminal that processes the data have. However, in order to accommodate this kind of data, the transmission speed of the CAN which is currently being used in the vehicle is not sufficient.

For this reason, some models of vehicles are additionally equipped with a communication network of a higher speed, for example, a LAN such as Ethernet as a vehicle communication network.

In addition to this tendency, the manufacturer or the seller of the vehicle is required to investigate the manufacturing defect of the sold vehicle, to investigate the frequency of use or preference of the convenience function of the vehicle, to verify the response method of various vehicle functions according to various driving situations, In order to improve the performance of the vehicle, data is collected from the vehicle, and some characteristic data necessary for diagnosis and post-survey are already collected through a wireless communication network.

However, in order to transmit various types of data (hereinafter, referred to as 'vehicle data') generated in a vehicle to a pre-designated external data collection / analysis server, publicly available wireless communication networks such as 3G or 4G A cellular network must be used, which causes a cost of using a communication network. The collection of the vehicle data is necessary for constructing big data of the vehicle manufacturer or the seller rather than the necessity of the driver of the vehicle, so that the vehicle manufacturer or the seller has to bear the whole communication cost generated.

Therefore, in order to construct a highly reliable big data, if a large amount of vehicle data of various types is collected, the communication cost to be borne by the vehicle manufacturer, etc. will increase proportionally. For this reason, there is a need for an efficient collection method for vehicle data.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing vehicle data to the outside that enables vehicle data to be acquired in a more economical manner.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for providing vehicle data to the outside in an optimal manner in a situation where the use of a communication network is limited.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for preventing the loss of important or urgent vehicle data even in a situation where there is a restriction on the use of a communication network.

It is to be understood that the object of the present invention is not limited to the explicitly stated objects, but, of course, it is an object of the present invention to achieve the effect which can be derived from the following specific and exemplary description of the present invention.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a terminal for collecting vehicle data comprises a storage unit for storing data generated in a vehicle, a data unit for acquiring data generated in the vehicle and transmitting the data to a designated remote location, An acquisition unit for allocating one of a plurality of categories to the configured data units and storing the data units in the storage unit; and a data communication unit for performing data communication selectively using the first communication network and the second communication network having different communication methods, And a transmission unit for transmitting the data unit stored in the storage unit to the remote unit. For the data unit to which a category having a priority higher than a predetermined reference value is assigned among the untransmitted data units stored in the storage unit when only the first communication network is available, And transmits the data to the second communication network when the second communication network is available for the data unit to which the category having the priority lower than the reference value is allocated among the untransmitted data units, To the remote site.

In one embodiment of the present invention, in transmitting the untransmitted data units using the second communication network, the transmitting unit transmits the untransmitted data units in descending order of priority of a corresponding category.

In another embodiment of the present invention, in transmitting the untransmitted data unit, the transmitting unit determines a transmission order based on an attribute value additionally assigned to each untransmitted data unit in addition to the allocated category. In this embodiment, the transmission unit determines the transmission order of the untransmitted data units having the same attribute value according to the priority of the assigned category. Here, the attribute value assigned to an arbitrary untransmitted data unit may be the time elapsed from the time at which the arbitrary untransmitted data unit was acquired, or the state information of the vehicle represented by the vehicle data in the arbitrary untransmitted data unit Or may be determined based on the difference between the elapsed time and a time limit set for the category assigned to any untransmitted data units. Here, the time limit may be set for each of the plurality of categories in a manner that varies between at least two categories for the plurality of categories. In addition, in the present embodiment, when the first communication network is available, even if the transmission data unit is assigned a category having a priority lower than the reference value, the transmission unit may transmit the attribute value assigned to the data unit And transmits the data unit to the remote site using the first communication network if the data unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when the use of the second communication network is disabled during transmission of one of the untransmitted data units to the remote using the second communication network, And if the category assigned to the one unit has a priority higher than or equal to the reference value, the remaining data that have not yet been transmitted to the one unit are successively transmitted using the first communication network. When the size of the remaining data is less than a predetermined limit value, the remaining data may be transmitted using the first communication network, even if the category assigned to the one unit has a priority lower than the reference value. However, even when the size of the remaining data is less than or equal to the limit value, when the category assigned to the one unit has a priority lower than the lower reference value lower than the reference value, do.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the reference value is changed and set to a value corresponding to a higher priority as the cost of using the first communication network becomes higher. To this end, the reference value may be adaptively set according to the day of week or time zone to which the current date and time belongs.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the reference value may be set by information received and requested by a specific server at a remote location.

In an embodiment according to the present invention, the obtaining unit assigns a category of the data unit based on characteristics of the vehicle data constituted by the data unit. Here, the characteristic is distinguished by a delimiter (ID) of a message carrying the vehicle data, state information of the vehicle represented by the vehicle data, or an identifier of the device that transmitted the vehicle data.

In an embodiment according to the present invention, if the space for storing new data units constituted from the acquired vehicle data is insufficient, the obtaining unit may determine that the second category having a lower priority than the first category allocated to the new data unit is allocated The existing data unit stored in the storage unit is overwritten with the new data unit. Here, the second category is a category having the lowest priority among the categories of data units which are different from the first category in the priority order by more than a specified reference difference and are also stored in the storage unit. In the present embodiment, when the number of data units allocated to the second category stored in the storage unit is a plurality, the obtaining unit acquires the oldest data unit from among the plurality of units, As shown in FIG. If there is no existing data unit stored in the storage unit, the new data unit is discarded if a category having a lower priority is allocated to the first category with a difference of more than a specified reference gap.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the free space of the storage unit capable of storing data units constituting the acquisition unit is equal to or smaller than a specified threshold value, at least a part of the data units stored in the storage unit Further comprising a control unit configured to shorten the storage of the storage unit by restoring the data by abbreviating the data. In the present embodiment, when the data units of the storage unit are shortened, the obtaining unit shortens the data of the new data unit formed from the data generated in the vehicle, and then stores the data in the storage unit. Alternatively, when the data units stored in the storage unit belonging to the category allocated to the new data unit that is configured are abbreviated, the abbreviated data units are stored in the new data unit. Then, the transmission unit transmits the reduced data unit to the remote site after canceling the corresponding data unit, or adding information indicating that the data is shortened.

In an embodiment according to the present invention, the obtaining unit obtains, for data units constituted from data generated in the vehicle, whether or not the category assigned to the units has a priority higher than the reference value, The storage space is divided and stored. Here, the storage space may include at least a first space for storing data units to which a category having a priority higher than the reference value is stored, and a second space for storing data units to which a category having a priority lower than the reference value is stored As shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, when there is no space in the first space for storing a newly constructed data unit, the transfer unit directly transfers the new data unit using the first communication network. Alternatively, an existing data unit stored in the first space, to which a category equal to or higher than the category assigned to the new data unit is assigned, is directly transmitted using the first communication network. The obtaining unit stores the new data unit where the existing data unit is stored. After transmitting the new data unit or the existing data unit, the transmitting unit transmits a part of the other data units stored in the first space using the first communication network, Space is secured. In addition, in the present embodiment, when the terminal device becomes less than or equal to a specified threshold value of the first space, the terminal device may extend the first space by reallocating a part of the second space to the first space And may further comprise a configured control unit. When the partial area is reallocated to the first space, the control unit may delete at least a part of the data units belonging to the category having a relatively low priority in the data units stored in the second space And the size of the partial area may be determined and reallocated within a range not exceeding the size of the free space of the second space before reallocation.

Further, in the embodiment where the storage space is divided into the first space and the second space, the obtaining unit configures a new data unit to be stored in the second space, If there is no space to store the new data unit, the new data unit is overwritten with the newly stored data unit in which the category having a lower priority than the category assigned to the new data unit is allocated and stored.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the transmission unit uses the second communication network for transmission of a data unit only when the vehicle is in a specific state, even if the second communication network is usable. Here, the specific state may be a braked state, a gear neutral state, or a parking state.

In one embodiment according to the present invention, assigning categories to the configured data units is to assign values indicating importance of vehicle data.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of acquiring vehicle data and transmitting the vehicle data to a remote location via a communication network, the method comprising: acquiring data generated in a vehicle and configuring the data unit as a data unit for transmitting the data to a designated remote location; Selecting a communication network based on a category assigned to the stored data unit and based on availability of the first communication network and the second communication network having different communication methods, And transmitting the stored data unit to the remote site. If the category assigned to the stored data unit has a priority higher than or equal to a predetermined reference value, the step 2 is to transmit the stored data unit to the remote location using the first communication network, And transmits the stored data unit to the remote site using the second communication network regardless of whether the category assigned to the stored data unit has a priority higher than the reference value if the second communication network is available .

In the terminal device, method, and various embodiments described above, the first communication network is a communication network supporting cellular mobile communication, and the second communication network is locally wireless And may be a communication network that provides services.

At least one embodiment of the present invention, as described in detail above with reference to the present invention or to the accompanying drawings, is to provide a system and method for transmitting a large amount of data of various characteristics and types, Thereby reducing the burden on the cost of collecting the vehicle data for the same purposes as building big data.

Further, the present invention can provide vehicle data with high importance or urgency to the collection server without losing, while reducing the communication cost due to the vehicle data collection. Therefore, And the like can be guaranteed economical efficiency and reliability of data collection by applying the present invention to data collection.

1 schematically shows an example of an overall communication system in a vehicle, in which an embodiment of a method for providing the vehicle data externally based on the characteristics of the vehicle data and the available communication network is implemented, according to the present invention,
Fig. 2 is an exemplary illustration of the configuration of the intelligent data collection terminal of Fig. 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention,
3A and 3B are flowcharts illustrating a process of adaptively selecting characteristics of vehicle data and a method of providing the vehicle data to the outside according to an available communication network according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 4 schematically shows a structure of a data storage space constructed according to an embodiment of the present invention and a system for managing records,
5 schematically shows a method of transmitting acquired vehicle data according to the category and degree of urgency according to an embodiment of the present invention,
6 is a diagram illustrating a method of processing data according to a category of data being transmitted when a Wi-Fi network becomes unavailable during data transmission through a Wi-Fi network according to an embodiment of the present invention And,
Fig. 7 schematically shows a method of processing according to the category of the data when the space for storing the acquired vehicle data is insufficient, according to the embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 8 is a view showing a structure of a storage space and a result of reduction when the stored data is shortened when the acquired vehicle data is insufficient, according to an embodiment of the present invention, ,
9 illustrates an example of a structure and a system of a storage space configured to store and store storage areas based on categories of acquired vehicle data according to an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 10 schematically shows a storage space reallocation in which the storage area is extended to a part of another storage area when one divided storage area becomes insufficient in the embodiment of FIG. 9,
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a process of deleting one information element from a cell map that manages information on cells in which data units belonging to a certain category are stored, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 schematically shows an example of an overall communication system in a vehicle, in which an embodiment of a method for providing the vehicle data externally based on the characteristics of the vehicle data and the available communication network, according to the present invention, is embodied.

The entire communication system shown in the figure shows CAN and a LAN that are building a local communication network in each vehicle and devices connected to the local communication network (various sensors, driving devices, AV devices, etc.) and an ECU Giving. And, each of the local communication network, the gateway _{(20 k, k = 1,} .., N) is connected, the gateway are intelligent data collection terminal (100) connected to (IDCT Intelligent Data Collecting Terminal), the A function of processing a data frame, which is reported by each device or an ECU of a local communication network, in accordance with a communication protocol adopted in the communication network, and converting the data frame into a data frame conforming to a predetermined method and transmitting the data frame to the intelligent data collecting terminal 100 .

2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the intelligent data collection terminal 100 (hereinafter abbreviated as 'intelligent terminal'), which is an apparatus for acquiring vehicle data and providing it to a server at a remote location, according to an embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated by way of example.

The intelligent terminal 100 mainly includes an acquiring unit that acquires vehicle data, a buffer 113 that is a storage unit of acquired vehicle data, a transmission unit that transmits vehicle data to a remote place, and a control unit 110 .

And the acquisition unit is the gateway to (20 _k, k = 1, .., N), the data acquisition unit 111 for acquiring extracts data from the fact data frame to the vehicle data of different characteristics that is reported from, and And a data classifying unit 112 for categorizing and storing the acquired vehicle data according to the characteristics. The buffer 113 stores the acquired vehicle data in a form for transmission to the outside.

The transmission unit includes a data communication unit 114 for selectively transmitting data stored in the buffer 113 to the outside according to communication conditions, a public mobile communication network in which a wide area mobile communication service is provided, for example, a 3G or 4G A cellular codec 122 that encodes data or decodes encoded data according to a method specified in a cellular network such as a cellular network, and a cellular codec 122 that modulates or RF modulates data according to a communication protocol adopted in a cellular network, A cellular modem 121 that transmits / receives data to / from the corresponding network by demodulating the data, and a communication network that provides wireless data services to a local area, for example, a data frame or a coded data frame A Wi-Fi codec 132, a Wi-Fi modem 1 for transmitting / receiving data to / from a Wi-Fi network by modulating data into an RF signal or demodulating an RF signal according to a designated method of the Wi- 31).

The controller 110 performs necessary operations such as categorization of data, transmission of vehicle data to the outside through a communication network, and management of storage space of vehicle data.

The control unit 110 may be configured to perform various operations described below in detail by executing a pre-stored instruction codes such as firmware provided to the control unit 110 by a central processing unit (CPU) The same is true for the components 111, 112, and 114. In order to facilitate the understanding of the concept and the subject of the present invention, the intelligent terminal 100 is functionally divided as illustrated. However, these configurations may be further decomposed to become separate hardware elements Or they may be combined with each other to form a single hardware element.

Hereinafter, the intelligent terminal 100 having the configuration as exemplified in Fig. 2 carries out the vehicle data based on the characteristics of the vehicle data and the available communication network, which are performed according to a procedure as illustrated in Figs. 3A and 3B, In the following description.

First, the data acquisition unit 111 acquires vehicle data by extracting data stored in a frame in accordance with a predetermined protocol in each frame when a data frame is received from the connected gateways 20 _k ( S310), and transfers it to the data classification unit (112).

Then, the data classification unit 112 checks the characteristics of the received vehicle data and categorizes the data according to the confirmed characteristics (S312). One example of categorization is assigning importance to the data. That is, the data classification unit 112 assigns importance of the data according to the identified data characteristics, and groups vehicle data of the same importance.

Another example of categorization is assigning urgency to the data. That is, the data classification unit 112 assigns the degree of urgency of the data according to the identified data characteristics, and groups the data according to vehicle data of the same urgency. As a value representing the urgency of data and the degree to which collection of the data must be performed quickly, a relatively high urgency can be given to, for example, data representing an accident or emergency operation status or failure of the vehicle have.

Another example of categorization may be determined in one category, taking into account the importance and urgency of the data. That is, it can be categorized on the basis of the value obtained by multiplying the importance and the degree of urgency assigned to the data of the characteristic by each weight.

The characteristics of the data can be grasped from the data identifier contained in the vehicle data, or can be grasped from which gateway the vehicle data is received. For example, if vehicle data is carried in a CAN message, the 11-bit separator (ID) at the head is checked to treat the entire message as a single category of data, or 8 bytes of message data The data can be divided and categorized by interpreting it according to the format. For example, if there is information on the operating status of the engine, such as 'engine RPM', 'current gear status', 'battery information', 'ABS enable status', etc., they are individually or partly grouped into a plurality of categories It may be handled.

As described above, it is also possible to check the characteristics of the received vehicle data according to which gateway the received vehicle data is transmitted. For example, if the currently received data is Ethernet data, which is used for transmitting / (Ethernet), the vehicle data is regarded as a multimedia characteristic and categorized accordingly.

Meanwhile, the rule that the data classifier 112 classifies according to the characteristics of the received data may be set in advance by the controller 110. More specifically, when the vehicle data external transmission mode is activated (for example, when the constant power supply is turned on), the control unit 110 controls the transmission of the data (ID of the CAN message, etc.) The data classifying unit 112 sets a rule defining the importance degree assigning method for each field of the received data and / or the categorizing method according to the received gateway, and the data classifying unit 112 classifies Thereby categorizing the received vehicle data. That is, one of the categories defined in the rule set for the vehicle data is selected and assigned.

After classifying the currently received vehicle data into single or plural categories, the data classifying unit 112 may classify, for example, a single importance level or urgency level in the entire vehicle data or in a different degree of importance or urgency After the data is subdivided into the vehicle data, a data unit having a size equal to or smaller than a predetermined upper limit size (which will be described below for the upper limit size) for each vehicle data to which the same importance or urgency is assigned do.

In constructing the data unit, it is possible to combine data currently received in the same category of data received and temporarily stored, or to divide the currently received data into a plurality of data units. When configuring a data unit in combination with previously received data, such as the former, a delimiter predetermined in advance may be inserted between data to be combined with each other. For example, the data of the same category but the data of the characteristics of the vehicle data to be combined with each other are different from each other (for example, data of "equipments state change information" and "vehicle periodic diagnosis information" In this case, a specific external server for collecting vehicle data and an appointed separator may be inserted between the vehicle data.

In addition, the data classification unit 112 may add information to know the characteristics of the received vehicle data, for example, the ID of the CAN message and / or the identification information of the gateway, in front of the vehicle data .

If the data unit is not enough to constitute one unit (S313), the data classifying unit 112 temporarily stores the vehicle data and stores the next vehicle data Lt; / RTI > is received. If the data unit can be configured as a data unit (S313), a 'data acquisition date' is added to the beginning of the data unit, and a complete data unit is formed and stored in the storage space reserved in the buffer 113 (S314) . In addition to the data acquisition date, the model name of the vehicle, the vehicle number, and the like may be added as header information of the data unit. Of course, such information is previously set in the data classification unit 112 by the control unit 110. [

In the embodiment according to the present invention, when the reception of the next vehicle data of the same category is awaited because the complete data unit can not be constructed, if the waiting time from the acquisition time of the data exceeds the specified time limit, The data unit may be composed of only the data that has been stored in the buffer 113 and stored in the buffer 113.

When the data classification unit 112 stores the data unit in the buffer 113, the data classification unit 112 records the data unit according to the structure and system of the storage space established by the control unit 110. Hereinafter, The structure and the system of the storage space will be described.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically illustrating a structure of a storage space and a system for record management constructed in the buffer 113 by the controller 110 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The controller 110 first reserves a space available in the buffer 113 and divides the space into a recording unit 401 of a predetermined size (hereinafter, referred to as a 'cell') A storage space 400 (hereinafter, referred to as a "unit space") is constructed. A field Cs_ # indicating the number (411) of empty cells currently available in the cells secured in the unit space 400 and a field Cs_ # composed of flags corresponding one-to-one with the cells secured in the unit space, The cell occupancy table 410 indicating whether the cell is empty or not is configured. That is, as shown in the figure, a table composed of NxK 1-bit or 1-byte cell flags 412 corresponding to NxK cells in the unit space 400 is configured.

The cell flags of the cell occupancy table 410 are initialized with a value (for example, 0) indicating that the cell is empty as shown in the figure. The number of available cells Cs_ # (NxK) is recorded.

In addition, the control unit 110 creates a cell search table 420 for all categories classified in the predetermined categorization rule, for example, for all the importance levels.

As shown in the figure, each category entry 421 _k , k = 1, 2, .., M of the cell search table 420 includes category information C_Info for identifying the category, A cell map in which positional information of cells (i.e., an index value on their unit space) is recorded, a map capacity MpCap indicating the size of the cell map, A recording pointer i_ptr indicating a point on the cell map in which an index of a cell where a newly completed data unit is to be recorded is to be recorded, And a field of a read pointer o_ptr indicating a point on the cell map where the index of the cell storing the data unit to be transmitted is recorded.

After constructing the cell search table 420 having such a structure, the control unit 110 writes initial information necessary for each field in each category entry. In the map capacity field MpCap, the number of elements of the cell map allocated with the memory space is written, and each element of the cell map has a specific value (for example, '-1'). In the beginning, since there is no data unit stored in the unit space 400, 0 is written to the field of the number of write cells (RC_ #), and the field of the write pointer (i_ptr) and the read pointer (o_ptr) The offset 0 on the cell map of the map element 431 is recorded.

The size of the cell map may be allotted to all the category entries 421 _k , k = 1, 2, .., M (that is, the initial values of the respective map capacity fields MpCap may be the same And can be assigned differently. In the latter case, the amount of generated vehicle data is statistically determined, and the size of the cell map is allocated according to the ratio between the two. Of course, in this case, allocate a sufficient amount of free space. For example, when the amount of vehicle data corresponding to any given category corresponds to about 10% of the total amount of data in the whole category, when the total number of cells in the unit space 400 is _CNTT , The cell map can be allocated so that it is not less than 0.1xCN _ToT and not more than twice its (0.2xCN _ToT ).

In another embodiment of the present invention, the size of the cell map may be allocated to each category entry so as to have the same number of elements as the total number of cells in the unit space. In the present embodiment, it is preferable to apply the present embodiment if the map capacity field (MpCap) is not necessary and the unit space may be filled only with vehicle data corresponding to a single category under special circumstances.

After the unit space 400, the cell occupancy table 410, and the cell search table 420 are constructed and necessary information is initialized, the control unit 110 controls the above- And notifies the data classifying unit 112 and the data communicating unit 114 of the position information capable of referring to the physical position on the buffer 113. [ At the same time, the size of the divided cell is notified to the data classifying unit 112 as the above-mentioned upper limit size.

The data classifying unit 112 refers to the information thus notified and stores the data unit constructed as described above, which will be described in detail.

First, the data classifying unit 112 checks the value of the available cell number field Cs_ #. If the value is not 0, the data classifying unit 112 searches the cell occupation table 410 to find the index of the currently empty cell Check. That is, an offset from the beginning of the cell flag in which an empty value is recorded is searched from the head of the cell occupancy table 410. [ The calculated offset is the cell index. When the cell index is determined as described above, the data classifier 112 stores the data unit of the cell in the cell corresponding to the cell index in the unit space 400. The position of the corresponding cell is obtained by multiplying the cell index by the notified upper limit size (i.e., the cell size). On the other hand, when the number of available cells Cs_ # is checked, the value may be 0, and the process therefor will be described in detail later.

After storing the data unit in the empty cell, the value of the available cell number field Cs_ # is decremented by one. Then, a category entry corresponding to the category of the stored data unit is identified in the cell search table 420, the value of the recording pointer i_ptr is read from the specified entry, and the pointer value, that is, the map element index (I.e., the index of the cell that has just stored the data unit) is recorded in the map element indicated by the offset (i.e., the offset of the element on the map).

Lastly, by incrementing the values of the recording pointer (i_ptr) and the number of recording cells (RC_ #) fields by 1, updating records of the management information by storing the newly constructed data units in the unit space (400) And terminates. At this time, if the value of the increased recording pointer i_ptr is equal to or larger than the value of the map capacity MpCap, the initial position of the cell map is returned. That is, it is set to 0 again.

As described above in detail, the acquisition of the vehicle data, the configuration of the acquired data in the data unit, the storage of the configured data unit and the recording or update of the management information are performed by the transmission Mode " is turned off (S315). When the transmission mode is turned off, it may be when the 'constant power' of the vehicle is turned off.

3B, when the data classifier 112 is operating as described above, the data communication unit 114 performs a process as illustrated in FIG. 3B, To the designated specific external server, which will be described in detail below.

First, the data communication unit 114 checks whether there is a data unit to be provided to a specific external server (S320). More specifically, referring to the location information on the buffer 113 notified from the control unit 110, a category entry in which the value of the recording cell number field RC_ # is not 0 in the cell search table 420 421 _i ) is present. That is, it is confirmed whether there is at least one data unit belonging to an arbitrary category to be transmitted to the outside.

The process of confirming whether there is a data unit to be provided to a specific server at a designated remote site (hereinafter, this provision may be referred to as "upload") may be continuously performed, or alternatively, (E.g., 1 minute, 10 minutes, or 1 hour, etc.).

If there is at least one data unit to be uploaded to the designated remote server, it is checked whether there is a currently available communication network (S321). If there is no available network, wait.

If the currently available communication network is outside the cellular network, it is checked whether the category of the data unit to be uploaded is equal to or higher than a preset reference category in priority (S322). For example, it is confirmed whether the importance assigned to the data unit is equal to or greater than a preset important reference value. Information on the reference category is initially set in the data communication unit 114 from the control unit 110.

If the category information of the corresponding category entry whose value of the number of write cells (RC_ #) is not equal to 0 is equal to or higher than the priority of the reference category, the data communication unit 114 transmits the stored data units belonging to the category entry to the following process And then transmitted to a specific server at a predetermined remote site through the cellular network (S323). Of course, mutual communication with a remote site such as opening a session required for uploading to the specific server is performed through the cellular network before the data communication unit 114 starts transmission of the data unit. In this specification, expressing relatively high or low in a comparison between categories means that the priority is high or low among the compared categories.

The data communication unit 114 checks the value of the read pointer field o_ptr of the category entry to which the data unit decided to be uploaded belongs, that is, the map element index, and stores the value recorded in the map element indicated by the map element index, Check the cell index. In the unit space 400, a data unit stored in a cell indicated by the cell index is read and transmitted to the specific server.

When the upload is successfully completed by uploading one data unit and receiving ACK for all the data of the corresponding unit from the remote site, the data communication unit 114 transmits the value of the read pointer o_ptr of the corresponding category entry The cell flag corresponding to the cell index is marked as a blank in the cell occupation table 410 so that data can be stored again in the corresponding cell, The value of the number field Cs_ # is also incremented by one.

If the number of recording cells is still not 0, the uploading of the data unit and the updating of the management information as described above are repeatedly performed until the number of recording cells becomes zero. In this process, when the value of the increased read pointer o_ptr is equal to or larger than the value of the map capacity MpCap, it is returned to 0 indicating the leading element of the cell map (Cell Map). Then, when the number of recording cells becomes 0, the data communication unit 114 ends the uploading operation of the data unit for the category entry, and initializes the values of the recording pointer and the reading pointer. That is, the field (i_ptr, o_ptr) of each pointer is written with 0 indicating the index of the first map element of the corresponding cell map.

If there are a plurality of category entries in which the number of recording cells is not 0, the data communication unit 114 sequentially transmits, from the entry of the higher priority category information to the entry having the higher importance or urgency, The same upload operation is performed. Of course, among the plurality of entries, an upload operation via the cellular network is not performed for an entry whose category information is lower than the reference category.

If it is confirmed that the Wi-Fi network is currently available (or only Wi-Fi network is available) in addition to the cellular network in the step S321 of checking available networks, the data communication unit 114 transmits Uploading to a specific server outside the data units belonging to each category entry performed when the cellular network is available, regardless of whether the categories of entries are higher than the criterion category for all category entries with a cell count of 1 or more The operation is performed through the Wi-Fi network (S331). Of course, in this uploading operation, the data communication unit 114 transmits category entries in descending order of priority.

On the other hand, the data communication unit 114 confirms the availability of the physically connectable communication network at the current point in parallel with the confirmation of existence of the data unit to be uploaded and the execution of the upload operation. That is, it is confirmed whether it is usable for each of the cellular network and the Wi-Fi network exemplified in this specification.

To this end, when the cellular modem 121 and the Wi-Fi modem 131 search for a signal band assigned to them, respectively, and detect a valid signal, the data communication unit 114 demodulates and transmits the signal And the IP address is allocated to the IP address. That is, by performing a connection procedure with the AP of the found cellular network base station or the Wi-Fi network, an IP address is allocated from the base station or the AP. When the IP address is allocated through the above process, the data communication unit 114 designates the communication network as an available communication network.

Therefore, when the data unit is to be transferred to the designated remote site, there is no available communication network if there is no communication network to which the current IP address is allocated. If the IP address is allocated only from the cellular network, the cellular network can be used The Wi-Fi network will be identified as unavailable.

The data communication unit 114 transmits the data unit stored in the cell to the cellular network or the Wi-Fi network when the cellular codec 122 or the cellular modem 121 or the Wi-Fi codec 132 / The Wi-Fi modem 131 establishes a TCP connection with a specific server at a designated address, and transmits the data unit using the established TCP connection. In this transmission, when a cellular network is used, the data unit is applied to the cellular codec 122 and to the Wi-Fi codec 132 when using a Wi-Fi network.

The data unit is then converted by the cellular codec 122, the cellular modem 121 or the Wi-Fi codec 132 / the Wi-Fi modem 131 into a signal conforming to the transmission of the communication network It is transmitted to the base station or the AP and is routed to the specified specific server by the backbone network or the like at the rear end thereof, and finally, is transmitted to the specific server.

On the other hand, in a state where only the cellular network can be used by the data communication unit 114, the Wi-Fi network can be used in a state where the data units of categories whose priority is higher than the reference category are uploaded to a specific external server via the cellular network The data communication unit 114 stops uploading via the cellular network and uploads the remaining data units that have not yet been transmitted to the specific server via the Wi-Fi network.

In another embodiment according to the present invention, data units of categories above the reference category are continuously transmitted to the specific server via the cellular network, and through the newly available Wi-Fi network, May be uploaded to the specific server through the Wi-Fi network according to the priority of the category for the data units of the Wi-Fi network.

In an embodiment according to the present invention, the order of priority for uploading vehicle data to the external server may be determined by other attributes than the category of the vehicle data. For example, in a case where the data units constituted by the acquired vehicle data are categorized based on their importance by assigning importance according to the characteristics of the data, the transmission order may be determined based on the urgency assigned to each data unit have.

The degree of urgency for the data unit can be determined by various factors or the state of the vehicle. For example, it can be seen that as the time stored in the unit space 400 in an untransferred state approaches a predetermined time limit, for example, 24 hours, the urgency increases stepwise. The time limit may be set for each category. For example, the threshold time of the high priority category can be set to be shorter than the threshold time of the low priority category. In this manner, if the time limits are set to be different between at least two categories, the higher the category, the shorter the remaining time until the limit time elapses in the case of different categories of data units constructed at the same time, The urgency of the unit is increased and the uploading order is faster than that of the data unit of the lower category.

On the other hand, the determination of urgency for the data unit is performed by the data communication unit 114 that can confirm the acquisition date and time of the data unit.

As described above, the degree of urgency for the data unit can be determined based on the state of the vehicle represented by the vehicle data, for example, the abnormal state of the vehicle (abnormal engine temperature, brake pad wear, etc.) An impact amount detection, an airbag operation, a tire puncture, etc.). That is, it is possible to give the highest degree of urgency to vehicle data indicating or suggesting an abnormal state or an emergency situation, or vehicle data captured by a black box obtained in such a state or situation. The degree of urgency given by the data classifying unit 112 is stored in the unit space 400 in addition to the front end of the completed data unit as described above, (114).

According to an embodiment of the present invention, when an order is set by referring to the urgency of a data unit and the upload is performed, the data communication unit 114 starts a data unit to be uploaded corresponding to each degree of urgency When searching, data units belonging to each category entry are searched starting from a category having a high priority, and if there is a data unit of the corresponding degree of urgency in the search, all the data units of the degree of urgency are transmitted, The same operation is performed.

Assuming that the data units 51 to which the urgency is assigned are categorized and stored in the unit space 400 as shown in FIG. 5, when the data units are transferred according to this method, 114), the data units are uploaded to the predetermined designated server (52) in the order of high urgency and in the order of high priority when the urgency is the same.

In an embodiment according to the present invention, a cellular network is used irrespective of whether the data units whose urgency is given or whose urgency is higher than or equal to a predetermined reference value are more than a criterion category that can be uploaded using a cellular network To a specific external server. Of course, if Wi-Fi network is available, it can be transmitted using Wi-Fi network.

Meanwhile, in an embodiment of the present invention, even if the Wi-Fi network is available, the network may not be used unless the vehicle is in a specific state. For example, if the driver is not in a state where the brakes are bright, the gear state is neutral or parking, the Wi-Fi network is regarded as unusable and the network is not used.

The control unit 110 notifies whether the vehicle is in a specific state. To this end, the data classifying unit 112 classifies message data of a special characteristic in the acquired vehicle data, for example, The control unit 110 analyzes the data of the transmitted message to determine whether the vehicle is in a braked state, in a neutral state or in a parking state, And notifies the data communication unit 114 of the confirmed status.

In an embodiment according to the present invention, during transmission of data units stored in a state where a Wi-Fi network is currently available through a Wi-Fi network, the Wi When the use of the -Fi network becomes impossible, the data communication unit 114 may selectively perform the operation of uploading the data unit that is currently being uploaded using the cellular network.

In the present embodiment, when it is decided to transmit data units (hereinafter, referred to as 'accident units') interrupted during the upload via the Wi-Fi network via the cellular network, Indicates information indicating the next point of the transmission completed (data that has been transmitted from the remote to the packet in which the ACK was transmitted to the packets carrying the segment of the data unit), information indicating 'transmission incomplete' The information of the session established for the upload of the unit is recorded in association with the corresponding incident unit.

Figure 6 illustrates one rule for determining whether to subsequently upload using a cellular network for an incident unit, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

The data communication unit 114 confirms whether the category of the accident unit is in the category of the reference category 61 or more as described above according to the illustrated rule. If the criterion is more than the criterion category, the data communication unit 114 uploads the unreceived residual data of the incident unit indicated as 'not yet completed' through the cellular network (P61). To this end, a connection is opened to the specific server through the cellular network, and the session information previously stored is transmitted to notify the remote site which data unit is to be uploaded next. Then, data from the point indicated by the pre- .

If the category of the identified accident unit is lower than the reference category, it is checked whether or not it is equal to or higher than the predetermined branch category 62. If the priority is higher than the branch category 62, the size of the transfer- (P62). The data communication unit 114 immediately uploads the remaining data using the cellular network as described above (P61). If the data is larger than the limit value, the data communication unit 114 temporarily suspends the uploading of the accident data (P63).

Then, even when the category of the accident unit is lower in priority than the branch category 62, it is temporarily suspended (P63).

When the Wi-Fi network becomes available again, the incident data that is subsequently uploaded is uploaded on the basis of the elapsed time from the suspension of the upload, or is newly transmitted from the beginning. The criterion of the elapsed time is pre-agreed with the specific server.

Meanwhile, in one embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned reference category as a criterion for use of the cellular network may be adaptively adjusted. Of course, the branch category 62 may also be adaptively adjusted. The description of adaptive adjustments of the following criteria categories can of course also be applied to the branch category.

In the embodiment of the present invention in which the reference category is adaptively set, the control unit 110 adjusts the reference category according to the condition and sets the reference category in the data communication unit 114. Here, the condition may be a variation in the cost of transmitting a certain amount of data through the cellular network. That is, when there is a change in the cost required to transmit a certain amount of data, the control unit 110 changes the reference category according to the variation, and sets the reference category in the data communication unit 114, So that the changed criteria category is used.

The cost to be paid for transmission of a certain amount of data over the cellular network may vary depending on the time zone or the day of the week. Accordingly, the communication cost table according to the time / day is set in advance by the controller 110, and the controller 110 refers to the reference table at regular intervals and it is confirmed that the communication cost increases according to the current time / day The reference category is reset to a higher level, i.e., the higher priority category information is reset to the reference category, and conversely, when the communication cost is confirmed to be reduced, the reference category is reset lower.

According to the present embodiment, when the reference category is set to a higher value, since the number of categories in which vehicle data can be uploaded using the cellular network is reduced, the amount of data transmission through the cellular network is also reduced stably. Therefore, A vehicle manufacturer or a seller, or a vehicle owner, etc., must pay for providing the vehicle data to a specific server.

In the embodiment according to the present invention, the quick reference table containing the above-mentioned communication charge information may be acquired from the outside without being preset in the control unit 110. [ In the present embodiment, the control unit 110 requests a connection with a server having a predetermined address in the data communication unit 114, requests a predetermined quick reference table through a connection established in response to the request, , It is possible to determine whether the reference category should be adjusted at the present time.

In another embodiment according to the present invention, instead of the above-mentioned quick reference table, information on a criterion category to be applied at the present time determined by an external server is directly requested and received and can be reset to the data communication unit 114 . The resetting of these criteria categories can be made at regular intervals.

In the process of acquiring the vehicle data described above and providing the vehicle data to an external specific server, a special condition, for example, a state in which there is no available communication network is maintained for a considerable period of time, The storage space of the data unit secured in the unit space 400 may be filled up when the state where the data is acquired is maintained for a considerable time. FIG. 7 exemplarily shows a method of processing the unit when the data classifying unit 112 generates a new new data unit from the acquired vehicle data in such an exceptional state. Hereinafter, this processing method will be described in detail.

When the data classifier 112 generates a new data unit and confirms the number field Cs_ # of the available cell to store the new data unit, the data classifier 112 indicates that there is no blank cell as the value is 0 S710), it is checked whether a data unit corresponding to a lower category is stored (S711) due to a difference greater than or equal to a predetermined reference difference with respect to the category of the new data unit (hereinafter, abbreviated as "new unit").

For example, assuming that the category information (eg, importance) of the new unit is 3, the reference difference is 2, and the smaller the value of the category information is, the higher the priority is, Is stored in the unit space (400). Assuming that the range of the category information is from 1 to 6, the data classifying unit 112 confirms whether the value of the recording cell number field RC_ # of the category entry of category information 5 and 6 is larger than 0.

If it is determined that there is no stored data unit in the lower category due to the difference of the reference difference or more (S711), the data classification unit 112 discards the new unit generated by the data classification unit 112 (S731) If it is determined that there is a data unit, the new unit is overwritten by storing the new unit in the cell where the data unit is stored, and the new unit is discarded (S712).

If there are a plurality of lower categories with a difference of more than the reference difference from the category of the new unit and all the data units stored in the respective categories are included, the lowest priority category is selected and data units belonging to the category The new unit will be overwritten. Also, when a plurality of data units belonging to the selected category are stored, the unit having the oldest acquisition date and time is selected and overwritten on the unit.

7, the data classification unit 112 stores the cell index 'nnnn' recorded in the map element currently pointed to by the read pointer o_ptr _D of the entry of the selected category 71, And overwrites the existing data unit by storing the new unit in the cell indicated by the index (P71). Then, the value of the number of recording cells of the entry is decremented by 1, and the value of the read pointer is incremented by 1 (73).

For the category 72 to which the new unit belongs, the index 'nnnn' of the cell in which the new unit is written in the map element currently pointed to by the recording pointer i_ptr _C of the entry is recorded and the value of the recording pointer i_ptr _C 1 (74), and the value of the number of recording cells is also increased by one. At this time, when the value of the incremented number of write cells is equal to or larger than the value of the map capacity MpCap, it is initialized to indicate the leading map element.

In the embodiment described above, it is determined whether to discard a new unit or overwrite a stored existing data unit. If the difference from the category having the lowest priority among the categories in which the current data unit is stored is greater than a predetermined reference value Or more.

In another embodiment according to the present invention, whether or not a new unit is overwritten may be determined based on an absolute reference value rather than a relative difference between categories. That is, if the category of the new unit has a priority higher than the specified reference value, the data unit belonging to the lowest ranking category among the categories of lower priority may be overwritten with a new unit.

Meanwhile, in an embodiment of the present invention, if there is no empty cell available in the unit space 400 or if the number of empty cells is less than a specified threshold value, the stored data unit may be further compressed to secure a recording space.

The controller 110 compresses data units stored in the unit space 400 if the value of the available cell number field Cs_ # is 0 or less than a predetermined threshold value, And performs an operation.

The data classifying unit 112 and the data communicating unit 114 notify the data classifying unit 112 that data writing and reading of the unit space 400 are interrupted. In this embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 8, in association with the cell occupancy table 810, a pack flag Pflg indicating whether or not the data of the cell is abbreviated and a cell size ('No') indicating that the field is not shortened and a size value (S _INIT ) of the partitioned cell are secured when the field of C_Sz is initialized for the structure of the storage space of the controller 110 and the initialization for building the system, Are recorded in the corresponding fields, respectively.

To shorten the data, each data unit in the unit space 800 is read and the data is compressed in such a manner as to select an appropriate one of known known methods. The compression scheme selected at this time may be either lossless compression, which is one of known methods, or special lossy compression.

When lossy compression is applied, for example, if the data stored in the data unit is the data of the photographed image, the picture data is decoded and then the picture is sampled at a lower rate or the picture size is reduced and then re- If the data is a data unit that carries a vehicle state, a driving state, or the like, a part of the data block included in the data unit is removed and the unit is reconstructed. For example, it is possible to reconstruct the data units of the vehicle data blocks acquired every 20 seconds by deleting, for example, one block for every two blocks in the vehicle data blocks acquired in the data unit for every ten seconds.

If the data unit is shortened, the area of the cell smaller than the initial cell size (S _INIT ) is secured and the reduced data unit is recorded in the area. As for the size of the cell to be reduced, the applied data reduction algorithm is experimentally applied to the vehicle data to apply a pre-determined value. For example, if the vehicle data is abbreviated in the range of 35% to 25% on average by the applied abbreviation algorithm, the size of the cell to be reduced (S _RED ) is set to 0.8 * S _INIT . Of course, if the size is smaller than the size of the reduced cell (S _RED ) as a result of the first reduction of the data unit, the reduction strength is further increased to a second order. This is true even if the data classifier 112 has to perform data reduction before storing the data unit in the unit space.

The control unit 110 writes data units contiguous to each other in a contiguous manner and records them contiguously in a reduced cell unit. If there is an empty cell, the control unit 110 clears the cell unit by a reduced cell size, Redefine the unit space.

By shortening the data units in this manner, the available cells are additionally reserved 821 at the back of the unit space 820. The controller 110 adds the number of the increased cells 821 to the cell occupation table, (831) is added to construct an extended cell occupancy table (830). Of course, a value (for example, 0) indicating that the cell flag of the additionally added area 831 is empty is recorded in the cell flags.

The size of the reduced cell (S _RED ) is recorded in the cell size field (C_Sz), and the number of cells (LxN) further secured in the existing value (?) Is stored in the number field (Cs_ # (841). Finally, a value (eg, 'Yes') indicating that the data has been abbreviated is written in the pack flag Pflg to end the data abbreviation operation for the unit space, And notifies the classification unit 112 and the data communication unit 114 of the data.

In the present embodiment, the data classification unit 112 confirms the value of the pack flag Pflg before storing the received data in the unit space, and if the value is in the shortened state If it is, the data unit of the data unit constituted by itself is shortened and stored in the empty cell of the unit space 820.

The actual location of the empty cell is determined by the value (S _INIT or S _RED ) written in the cell size field C_Sz to the offset (i. E., Cell index) from the first of the blank marked cells found in the cell occupancy tables 810,830 Is determined by the value obtained by multiplying.

The data communication unit 114 checks the value of the pack flag Pflg when it wants to upload a data unit belonging to a certain category and decompresses the data unit read from the cell if the value indicates an abbreviated state . If the data unit is promised with a specific server to which the data unit is provided, a flag indicating that the data has been abbreviated may be additionally written in the header of the data unit and transmitted without decompression.

If the loss compression method is applied to the data units in the unit space, the data communication unit 114 can upload the data unit to the remote site without adding the information indicating the data reduction to the header of the data unit.

The data communication unit 114 reads a cell index of a certain category entry such that the value of the cell index C (S_Sz) recorded in the cell size field C_Sz _INIT or S _RED ) to determine a position to be read in the unit spaces 800 and 820.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to secure a recording space that can be used by performing lossless compression on data units stored in the unit space 400 regardless of the size of available space.

In addition, in an embodiment according to the present invention, loss or lossless compression of data units in a unit space may be selectively performed according to categories. For example, compression may be performed only on units belonging to a low priority category. In this embodiment, a pack flag indicating that the data is abbreviated is assigned as a field of the category entry of the cell search table other than the cell occupation table. In this embodiment, before the data unit is constructed with the received vehicle data and stored in the unit space, the data classification unit 112 sets the pack flag of the category entry on the cell search table corresponding to the category assigned to the unit If the value indicates an abbreviated state, the data unit of the data unit constituting the data unit is shortened and stored in the unit space, otherwise, the data unit is stored as it is.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to manage the areas to be stored in the unit space to be stored separately from each other based on the reference category. 9, when the structure of the storage space and the system are constructed in the buffer 113 at the beginning, the control unit 110 stores two cell occupancy tables, i.e., a first cell occupancy table 910 and a second cell occupancy table 920 are created. The number of available cells (Cs_ # _C , Cs_ # _W ) and the leading cell index (sCIdx _C , sCIdx _W ) are also allocated in association with each cell occupation table. When this embodiment is implemented in combination with any of the above embodiments, the above-mentioned other fields can also be allocated in association with each cell occupancy table.

A unit space 900 is constructed by securing a storage space available in the buffer 113 and dividing the reserved storage space into a predetermined cell size and allocating the unit space 900 to a predetermined allocation Into a first unit space 901 and a second unit space 902 according to the ratio. Here, the first unit space 901 has space for storing data units allocated to categories with a reference category or more, and the second unit space 902 is a space for storing data units belonging to lower categories. In other words, in principle, the first unit space 901 is a space for storing vehicle data to be uploaded using a cellular network, and the second unit space 902 is a space for storing vehicle data to be uploaded via a Wi-Fi network It is space for storing. The term "principle" is used here because it is a storage space for vehicle data intended for use of the communication network, but the conditions or conditions described above (urgency assigned to the data unit, Wi-Fi network unavailable during upload , When the cellular network and the Wi-Fi network can be used at the same time, etc.), the data of the storage space may be transmitted using a communication network other than the intended communication network. That is, as in the description of the various embodiments described above, the use of a cellular network is a storage space of the intended vehicle data, but may be transmitted using a Wi-Fi network, or conversely, It is a storage space for vehicle data, but may be transmitted using a cellular network.

After the unit space 900 is divided as described above, the first cell offset of the first unit space 901 with respect to the offset from the starting point of the unit space of the first cell of each of the divided spaces 901 and 902 becomes the first cell occupation In the first cell index field (sCIdx _C ) associated with the table 910, the leading cell offset of the second unit space 902 is set to the leading cell index field CIdx _W associated with the second cell occupation table 920 (Cs_ # _C , Cs_ # _W ) of the available cells in the same manner, _and each cell occupation table (910, 920), which is finally discriminated from each other, By marking all the cell flags in the storage space with the blank.

In the embodiment according to FIG. 9, when a data unit constituted by the data classifying unit 112 is to be stored, a space to be stored is determined according to whether a category assigned to the unit is lower than a reference category, . For this purpose, the data classifier 112 may classify the cell (s) marked as blank in the first cell occupancy table 910 if the category of the unit to be currently stored, for example, the importance level is greater than or equal to a reference category (for example, A cell flag marked as blank in the second cell occupation table 920 is found, and the offset in the corresponding occupancy table of the found cell flag is set to the head cell associated with the occupation table The data unit is stored in the cell indicated by the index of the value (0 or PxN) of the index field (sCIdx _C or sCIdx _C ).

In this way, by storing the data units constituted by the data classifying unit 112 in the first unit space 901 or the second unit space 902, by expressing differently on the basis of the reference category, The area is divided and stored in the unit space based on whether or not to transmit the data using the unit space.

In the embodiment of the present invention, data units to be stored in the first unit space 901 are generated when the data units are divided and stored based on the communication network to be used in principle as shown in FIG. 9, The data classifier 112 may request the urgent data transmission to the data communication unit 114 by directly transmitting the data unit to the data communication unit 114. [

In another embodiment according to the present invention, a new data unit to be stored in the first unit space 901 is generated. However, if there is no more empty cell in the space 901, Finds data units that are the same or higher than the category, and uploads them to the external server using the cellular network, and stores the new data unit in the vacated cell. For this, the data classifying unit 112 transmits urgent transmission of the data unit to the data communication unit 114 while transmitting information indicating the found data unit, for example, a cell index.

If there are a plurality of categories beyond the category of the new data unit, the highest category is selected. If there are a plurality of data units in the category, the data unit having the oldest stored time is selected as a unit for emergency transmission, And transmits the information to the data communication unit 114.

When the urgent transmission request as described above occurs, the data communication unit 114 directly uploads the data unit read from the transferred data unit or the cell indicated by the transferred cell index to a specific external server using the cellular network do. In addition, data (data) belonging to categories having a predetermined ratio (for example, 1%, 2%, 5%, etc.) to the data units stored in the first unit space 901 The units are uploaded directly to the external server using the cellular network.

In an embodiment according to the present invention, when the free space of the first unit space 901 is insufficient, for example, when there is no cell to store the currently configured data unit, or when the number of available cells becomes less than the specified threshold value, 2 unit space 902 by extending the first unit space 901 to a part of the second unit space 902. [ 10 shows that cell occupancy tables are reconstructed by reallocating each unit space according to the present embodiment. The example of FIG. 10 assumes to reallocate 2N cells of the second unit space to the first unit space.

In the present embodiment, if it is confirmed that the first unit space 901 is insufficient, the data classification unit 112 notifies the control unit 110 of the fact. When the notification is received, the control unit 110 performs a storage space reallocation to allocate the area 1001 of the second unit space 902 continuous to the first unit space of the predetermined extended size In the example of 10, the first 2N consecutive cells) are reassigned to the first unit space.

For this reassignment, the control unit 110 first moves the data units stored in the area 1001 to empty cells in the second unit space, and then, in the second cell occupancy table 1020, Also, the map element that records the index of the cell before the movement is searched in the cell map, and substitutes the index of the moved cell with the map element. If the area 1001 is empty by this operation, the control unit 110 removes the leading part 1021 of the second cell occupation table 1020 mapped to the area 1001, The cell flags corresponding to the removed part are additionally assigned (1011) to the first cell occupancy table 1010 and marked with a blank in the additional cell flags.

The value of the leading cell index field (sCIdx _W ) associated with the second cell occupation table is recorded (1022) in the first cell of the second unit space reduced by reallocation, and the number of available cells (Cs_ # _W ) by the number of cells disappeared by the reallocation (1023). Finally, the reallocation operation for the storage space is completed by adding the number of newly added cells to the number of available cells (Cs_ # _C ) associated with the first cell occupation table by reallocation. When the reallocation operation is completed, the data classifying unit 112 and the data communicating unit 114 are notified of this fact so that normal storing and uploading operations are performed.

In the above-described embodiment, if the current number of available cells is insufficient to secure a vacant space corresponding to the extended size in the second unit space, the controller 110 determines that the number of available cells Expands the unit space to the second unit space. Alternatively, after selecting as many cells as the insufficient number and making the cells into empty cells, reassignment may be performed as described above.

When a cell in which a data unit is stored is made an empty cell, a cell flag corresponding to the cell is displayed as a blank, and a map element recording the index of the cell is found as a cell map, and the map element is also deleted.

11 is a diagram showing a more detailed process of deleting a map element. As shown in the figure, when the map element 1101 to be deleted is determined, the values of map elements in which valid cell indexes are recorded before the map element 1101 are moved forward one by one (in the direction in which the read / write pointer advances (P1110), and the read pointer (o_ptr _O ) is also incremented by 1 to indicate the next map element (o_ptr _N ). Here, the effective cell index means an index of a cell in which a data unit that has not yet been uploaded to a remote place is recorded.

When a map element is deleted, the next map elements of the map element may be moved backward by one, and the write pointer may be decreased by one.

When a sufficient number of cells are selected to secure the extended space, the selection is made from the cells allocated to the data units of the lowest priority category. That is, if the number of cells to be secured at present is greater than the value recorded in the record cell number field RC_ # of the category entry corresponding to the category of the lowest priority, all the cells in which data units belonging to the category are selected And the cells to be empty cells are selected in such a manner that a necessary number of cells are selected in the cells in which the data units corresponding to the higher priority category are recorded.

9, a new data unit to be stored in the second unit space 902 is configured in a case where the data units are divided and stored based on a communication network to be used in principle. However, in the present embodiment, When there is no more empty cell in the space 902, as described with reference to FIG. 7, the new data unit is discarded, or the unit of data stored in the storage unit 902 belongs to the lowest priority category among the stored units The oldest data unit may be overwritten as a new data unit. At the same time, data units may be additionally further deleted in the second unit space 902 to further secure a free space. For example, all of the data units corresponding to the lowest ranking category may be deleted, or all the data units whose acquisition date and time has elapsed for a predetermined time (for example, 24 hours) may be deleted.

In the above description of the embodiments in which the data units are divided and stored based on the communication network to be used in principle, it is assumed that the divided storage areas are continuous. However, this is for convenience of description, The principles and concepts of the above-described embodiments can be applied as they are, even if the regions are not necessarily physically continuous.

For example, after each cell of the first cell occupation table and the second cell occupation table functioning as described above is constructed to have the same number of cell flags as the total number of cells secured in the unit space, Cells to be used in the cell occupation table can be allocated by using a special notation (for example, '-1') for cells not to be used in the cell occupancy table. In this way, the cells to be used in each cell occupancy table need not be consecutive, and arbitrarily scattered cells logically form one region (an area corresponding to the first unit space and the second unit space described above). In this embodiment, when an empty cell is searched for in the first or second unit space, a cell flag having a not-used notation is ignored and a cell flag indicated as a blank is found on the corresponding cell occupation table.

In this embodiment, when the first unit space is shortened and the first unit space is expanded by reallocating a part of the second unit space, it is necessary to move the data units stored in the second unit space to another cell The cell flags on the second cell occupancy table corresponding to the cell indices of the currently empty cells corresponding to the size to be secured are marked and the cell flags on the first cell occupancy table are not used You can change the notation to blank. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the area of the second unit space incorporated into the first unit space by the reallocation does not need to be continuous, nor does it need to be connected to the first unit space.

The various methods applied to the method of externally providing the vehicle data based on the characteristics of the vehicle data and the available communication network, which are described in detail in the above-described embodiments, can be appropriately selected and combined together if they are incompatible with each other have.

The principle and concept of the present invention have been specifically described by exemplifying a Wi-Fi network that is a high-speed wireless LAN as a wireless communication network used together with data transmission from a vehicle to a remote place in addition to a mobile communication network called a cellular network . However, the principles and concepts of the present invention are applicable to other types of non-cellular (eg, wireless) cellular networks that are out of Wi-Fi, have no cost in using data services or are less expensive than the cellular network A wireless communication network or a communication network that is connected by wire when the vehicle is stopped or a wireless or wired communication network in which a data service area is limited and its service area is also locally dispersed, a plurality of communication networks including a communication network and a cellular network The scope of the rights according to the claims can not be excluded because the applied data communication network differs from the communication network exemplified in this specification.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. , Alteration, substitution, addition, or the like.

20 _i : gateway 100: intelligent data collection terminal
110: control unit 111: data acquisition unit
112: Data classification unit 113: Buffer
114: data communication unit 122: cellular modem
122: cellular codec 131: Wi-Fi modem
132: Wi-Fi codec 400: Unit space
410: cell occupation Table 420: cell search table

Claims (34)

A terminal apparatus for vehicle data collection,
A storage unit for storing data generated in the vehicle;
An acquiring unit configured to acquire data generated in a vehicle and transmit the data to a designated remote site, allocate one of a plurality of categories to the configured data unit, and store the data unit in the storage unit,
And a transmitting unit capable of performing data communication selectively using a first communication network and a second communication network having different communication methods and transmitting the data unit stored in the storage unit to the remote site,
Wherein if the first communication network is available, the transmission unit may transmit only the data units to which the category having a priority higher than a predetermined reference value is allocated among the untransmitted data units stored in the storage unit, using the first communication network And a data unit to which a category having a priority lower than the reference value is allocated, if the second communication network is available, to transmit the untransmitted data unit to the remote site using the second communication network, To the terminal device. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the transmitting unit is configured to transmit the untransmitted data units using the second communication network in a descending order of priority of a corresponding category. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the transmitting unit is configured to determine the transmission order based on an attribute value assigned to each of the non-transmitted data units, in addition to the assigned category, when transmitting the untransmitted data unit. The method of claim 3,
Wherein the transmission unit is configured to determine a transmission order of the untransmitted data units having the same attribute value according to a priority of an assigned category when determining the transmission order of the untransmitted data units. The method of claim 3,
The attribute value assigned to any untransmitted data unit is based on the elapsed time from the time at which the arbitrary untransmitted data unit was acquired or the state information of the vehicle represented by the vehicle data in the arbitrary untransmitted data unit And the terminal device. The method of claim 3,
The attribute value assigned to any unsent data unit is a difference between the elapsed time from the time at which the arbitrary unsent data unit was acquired and the threshold time set for the category assigned to the unsent data unit , ≪ / RTI >
Wherein the threshold time is set for each of the plurality of categories in a manner that varies between at least two categories for the plurality of categories. The method of claim 3,
If the attribute value assigned to the data unit is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value even if the first transmission network is available and the transmission data unit is assigned a category having a priority lower than the reference value, And the unit is configured to transmit to the remote site using the first communication network. The method according to claim 1,
When the use of the second communication network becomes impossible during transmission of one unit of the untransmitted data units to the remote using the second communication network, And to transmit remaining data that has not yet been transmitted to the one unit using the first communication network if it has a priority higher than the reference value. 9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the transmission unit is configured to continuously transmit the remaining data using the first communication network when the size assigned to the one unit has a priority lower than the reference value and the size of the remaining data is less than a specified limit value Terminal device. 10. The method of claim 9,
Wherein when the category assigned to the one unit has a priority lower than a lower reference value lower than the reference value even if the size of the remaining data is less than or equal to the limit value, Wherein the terminal device is configured to suspend a transmission operation. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the reference value is changed adaptively according to a change in cost due to use of the first communication network and is changed to a value corresponding to a higher priority when the cost is increased. 12. The method of claim 11,
Wherein the reference value is adaptively set according to the day of the week or the time zone to which the current date and time belongs. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the reference value is set by information received and requested by a specific server at a remote location. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the obtaining unit is configured to assign a category of the data unit based on characteristics of the vehicle data composed of the data unit,
Wherein the characteristic is distinguished by a delimiter (ID) of a message that carries the vehicle data, status information of the vehicle represented by the vehicle data, or an identifier of the device that transmitted the vehicle data. The method according to claim 1,
If the storage unit has insufficient space to store the new data unit, the second category having a lower priority than the first category allocated to the new data unit is allocated And overwrites the existing data unit stored in the storage unit with the new data unit. 16. The method of claim 15,
Wherein the second category is a category of the lowest priority among the categories of data units that differ from the first category in the priority order by more than a specified reference difference and are also stored in the storage unit. 16. The method of claim 15,
Wherein the obtaining unit is configured to overwrite the oldest data unit among the plurality of units when the data unit allocated with the second category is stored in the storage unit as the new data unit Terminal device. 16. The method of claim 15,
Wherein the obtaining unit is configured to discard the new data unit if there is no existing data unit stored in the storage unit to which a category with a lower priority is allocated with a difference greater than or equal to a reference gap defined over the first category allocated to the new data unit / RTI > The method according to claim 1,
If the free space of the storage unit capable of storing data units constituting the acquisition unit is less than or equal to a specified threshold value, at least a part of the data units stored in the storage unit is reduced and restored to save the storage space of the storage unit And a control unit configured to further secure the terminal apparatus. 20. The method of claim 19,
Wherein the obtaining unit is configured to store the data of the new data unit configured from the data generated in the vehicle in the storage unit when the data units of the storage unit are shortened. 20. The method of claim 19,
Wherein the obtaining unit is configured to selectively reduce the new data unit based on whether or not the data units stored in the storage unit belong to a category assigned to the new data unit configured from the data generated in the vehicle / RTI > 20. The method of claim 19,
If the data unit of the storage unit is abbreviated, the transmission unit may abandon the data corresponding to the arbitrary data unit, and then transmit the data to the remote unit by adding information indicating that the data is abbreviated . The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the obtaining unit divides the storage space on the storage unit based on whether or not a category allocated to the data units constituting from the data generated in the vehicle has a priority higher than the reference value,
Wherein the storage space is divided into a first space in which data units assigned a category having a priority higher than the reference value are stored and a second space in which data units assigned a category having a priority lower than the reference value are stored, And the terminal device. 24. The method of claim 23,
The transmitting unit may transmit the new data unit to the first space by using the first communication network when the acquiring unit has configured a new data unit to be stored in the first space but there is no space in the first space to store the new data unit. The terminal apparatus comprising: 24. The method of claim 23,
Wherein if the acquiring unit constructs a new data unit to be stored in the first space but there is no space in the first space to store the new data unit, Immediately transmitting an existing data unit stored in the first space, to which a category with a higher priority than the category is assigned, using the first communication network,
Wherein the obtaining unit is configured to store the new data unit at a place where the existing data unit is stored. 26. The method according to claim 24 or 25,
The transmitting unit may transmit a part of the other data units stored in the first space to the first communication network after the first data unit is directly transmitted because there is no space for storing the new data unit in the first space. So as to secure a free space in the first space. 24. The method of claim 23,
And a controller configured to expand the first space by reassigning a part of the second space to the first space when the free space of the first space becomes a specified threshold value or less. 28. The method of claim 27,
Wherein the control unit is configured to delete at least a part of data units belonging to a category having a relatively low priority among data units stored in the second space when reallocating the partial area to the first space Terminal device. 28. The method of claim 27,
Wherein the size of the reallocated partial area does not exceed the size of the free space of the second space before reallocation. 24. The method of claim 23,
If the new data unit is configured to be stored in the second space but there is no space for storing the new data unit in the second space, the obtaining unit assigns a category having a lower priority order than the category assigned to the new data unit And overwrites and stores the previously stored data unit as the new data unit. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the transmission unit is configured to use the second communication network for transmission of a data unit only when the vehicle is in a specific state even if the second communication network is usable,
Wherein the specific state is a state in which a brake is applied, a gear is in a neutral state, or a parking state. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the assignment of the category to the configured data unit is performed by assigning a value indicating importance of the vehicle data to the configured data unit. The method according to claim 1,
The first communication network is a communication network supporting cellular mobile communication,
Wherein the second communication network is a communication network that locally provides wireless services within a limited area. A method for acquiring vehicle data and transmitting the vehicle data to a remote location via a communication network,
A data unit for receiving data generated in a vehicle and transmitting the data to a designated remote location, allocating one of a plurality of categories to the configured data unit and storing the data unit,
Selecting a communication network on the basis of a category assigned to the stored data units and an availability of each of the first communication network and the second communication network having different communication methods and transmitting the stored data units to the remote site , ≪ / RTI >
The second step is to transmit only data units having a priority higher than a predetermined reference value among the stored data units to the remote site using the first communication network if only the first communication network is available, And wherein if the second network is in a usable state, the assigned category includes a data unit having a priority lower than the reference value to transmit the stored data units to the remote using the second network.

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