Patent ID: 8762518
Filing Date: 2014-06-24
Classification: G08G,H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method for maintaining a local peer group, said local peer group being formed from a plurality of moving vehicles, each equipped with a wireless communications device, one of the plurality of moving vehicles is selected as a group header node (GH) the method comprising: receiving periodically a heartbeat packet from the GH, the heartbeat packet including a maximum relay hop count to control size of a local peer group formed from a plurality of moving vehicles and a heartbeat cycle period; forwarding the heartbeat packet from a moving vehicle until the maximum relay hop count is reached after waiting for a first random relay delay assigned by a member node, said first random relay delay is set to be less than a maximum allowable adjustable value; replying to the heartbeat packet with a membership report packet; forwarding a membership report packet towards the GH; and adding a moving vehicle that submitted the membership report packet to a local peer group membership as a member node of the local peer group if the membership report packet is new or updating membership information for a member node.