Patent ID: 11895566
Assignee: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A method performed by a platoon vehicle for changing a quantity of vehicles in a platoon, comprising:
establishing an out-of-band vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication link with a target vehicle in response to determining a change in the quantity of vehicles included in the platoon is approved, wherein the out-of-band V2V communication link extends laterally relative to a direction of travel of a designated platoon vehicle more than a first V2V communication link with an initially-adjacent platoon vehicle that is currently immediately adjacent the designated platoon vehicle and is traveling either in front of or behind the designated platoon vehicle, and wherein the designated platoon vehicle uses beam steering to establish and maintain the out-of-band V2V communication link;
expanding the first V2V communication link for maintaining communications with the initially-adjacent platoon vehicle while changing a relative positioning between the designated platoon vehicle and the initially-adjacent platoon vehicle;
establishing a second V2V communication link with the target vehicle; and
ending the out-of-band V2V communication link in response to the target vehicle taking the place of the initially-adjacent platoon vehicle immediately adjacent to and either in front of or behind the designated platoon vehicle.