INFRASTRUCTURE FUNCTIONS ENABLED MOBILE NETWORK
The present invention relates to an enhancement to existing mobile network resources
to provide a multitude of important infrastructure services in addition to its mobile
communication function. The enhanced mobile network comprises a plurality of
“enhanced” Base Station units that are equipped to provide a multitude of other
infrastructure services.
Background:
Several modern day infrastructural facilities require delivery of services across a large
geographic area covering a town, city or district. Well known examples of such facilities
include lighting infrastructure (including lighting of roads and streets), traffic
management, and public transport. New requirements are also emerging such as those
relating to women’s security and general street crime, and air-pollution monitoring.
Such facilities are termed “infrastructure facilities”. As the need for such facilities has
gained importance various solutions have emerged, however all such suggestions
provide stand-alone solutions addressing only a single infrastructure facility. As a
consequence, modern day implementations reveal several solutions that coexist
separately in proximity with one another.
Fig.-1 shows an existing arrangement of providing infrastructure facilities, for example in
a smart city. The mobile communication infrastructure (101) exists separately and
independently from the remaining infrastructure facilities such as Video Surveillance
(102), Public Transport Vehicle Monitoring (103) and Air Pollution monitoring (104).
Common resources are not shared and each facility operates independently and nonsynergistically.
As a result, advantages that could accrue from interaction are not
realized thereby limiting efficacy and lacking efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Infrastructure facilities are driven by the need for communication between field units
and central control and monitoring stations that are responsible for the maintenance
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and upkeep of such facilities across a large geographic area. This common requirement
is inherent to every one of the infrastructure facilities and comprises a significant
portion of the functional behavior of such facilities. Practical limitations and cost
constraints very often necessitate the use of wireless communication for meeting this
requirement. Individual field units are therefore equipped with wireless communication
capabilities. In the vast majority of cases the wireless communication is in the form of
radio communication.
Field units of several of the infrastructure facilities are often situated in proximity to one
another. In particular, roads and street poles are convenient and logical locations for the
deployment of such devices. As a result, several of the field units from different
infrastructure facilities are clustered together in such areas. The wireless radio signals
from different systems overlap and are prone to interfere with one another. This
situation is aggravated by the fact that the radio spectrum is already crowded and it is
difficult to allocate the communication frequencies in a segregated manner.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY:
It is an object of this invention to overcome the above-mentioned problems.
Another object of the present invention is to improve the cost effectiveness of
implementing infrastructure facilities.
Yet another object of the present invention is to improve the security and reliability of
implementation of infrastructure system implementation.
To achieve the stated objects, the present invention provides a cellular base station that
comprises an integrated infrastructure facility device operatively coupled to the cellular
base transceiver station for utilizing the cellular network to communicate with the
remote monitoring stations for each of the infrastructure facilities provided by the
device.
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In one preferred embodiment, the integrated infrastructure facility device comprises
video surveillance and air-pollution monitoring infrastructure facilities.
In another preferred embodiment, the integrated infrastructure device includes public
transport surveillance infrastructure facility.
In yet another embodiment, the integrated infrastructure device includes traffic
monitoring infrastructure facility.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:
The invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings in
which like characters represent like parts throughout.
Fig. - 1 shows the prior art as visible in a typical street of a modern “smart city”.
Fig. - 2 shows the basic structure of a modified Cellular Base station and infrastructure
facilities implementation according to the present invention.
Fig. - 3 shows one preferred embodiment of an integrated infrastructure facilities
device as used inside the Cellular Base Station, according to the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION:
The following paragraphs describe preferred embodiments of the device according to
the invention. It will be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art will be aware that
the activities described are only exemplary and several variations are possible, all of
which are understood to fall within the scope of this disclosure. Various subsets of
activities described as well as obvious extensions of functions would be similarly covered
by this disclosure.
In particular, as shown in Fig.-2, the invention builds on existing mobile communications
infrastructure to provide a multitude of supplementary functions at minimal additional
cost. An Integrated Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200) is coupled to
the Base Transceiver station equipment inside the Cellular Base Station. The Integrated
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Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200) incorporates all the functions and
capabilities of the individual infrastructure systems of the prior art.
Fig. – 3 shows the block diagram of one preferred embodiment of the Integrated
Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200). Individual sensing devices Video
Camera (201) for providing Video Surveillance, RFID Reader concentrator (202) for field
deployed RFID Reader units 103(a) and 103(b), and Air Pollution sensor (203) are
coupled to Processing Unit (204) which implements those infrastructure facility
functions either independently or with the assistance of one or more remote processing
and/or storage units using BTS Interface Unit (205) which enables the use of the BTS in
the Cellular Base Station for communication. At the same time information is relayed to
one or more remotely located Central Monitoring Stations in real-time using the same
Cellular link.
The solution can be implemented on all mobile base stations without limitation. By
leveraging the large physical presence and reach of the existing mobile base station
network, this approach provides for quick and easy deployment of all the advantageous
functions and features across the entire city/district/town and even in the inter-city
spaces. The additional infrastructure functions can extend to wider areas and locations
at minimal cost and with great convenience by “riding” on the ongoing mobile
communication expansion.
The Integrated Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200) possesses powerful
processing capacity and is highly scalable. It is therefore capable of implementing many
functions simultaneously and can support additional features to fulfill future
requirements.
In preferred embodiments multiple communication links and modes are implemented in
each Integrated Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200) so as to provide
redundancy and implement fault-tolerance.
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The communication links also enable each Integrated Infrastructure Facilities
Implementation device (200) to monitor the status of neighboring Integrated
Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200) and report any malfunction,
thereby enhancing the reliability of the entire intelligent network.
Each Integrated Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200) is designed to be
scalable in terms of features and capacity throughout its operating life with the ability of
adding several functions during regular operation, by remote upgrades of its functional
capabilities. Such capability enhancements are automatically detected and announced
by the upgraded unit and transmitted to the designated monitoring station(s). Similarly,
the addition of any new Integrated Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200)
(for example, by field up- gradation/replacement) will automatically be registered by the
entire network and reported at the designated monitoring station(s) along-with its
capabilities and features.
Individual Integrated Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200) implements
continuous or periodic/externally-triggered self-health checks including status checks on
input power supply, and report the results of the checks to the central monitoring
station(s) at regular intervals/during normal communication sessions as well special
transmissions on the occurrence of specific events including, but not limited to, events
such as input power failure which is reported during the brief “hold-up” period of the
internal power supply. On resumption of power, the Integrated Infrastructure Facilities
Implementation device (200) is able to automatically re-configure itself to its status prior
to the outage and re-register itself on the network and then report its status to the
designated monitoring station(s).
Each Integrated Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200) preferably
incorporates special features to enhance the reliability of the data transfer to/from the
designated monitoring station(s). The data integrity includes mechanisms for checking
and validating the identity of the source and destination of the data transfer, as well as
the type and value of the individual data elements. Wherever possible, error-correction
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mechanisms are also incorporated for recovering original information from corrupted
data received at the destination points.
In one embodiment, the Integrated Infrastructure Facilities Implementation device (200)
also includes the capability to securely encrypt data originating from it as well as decrypt
data for which it is the destination, in order to provide secure data transfer through the
network. As a further security measure, the Integrated Infrastructure Facilities
Implementation device (200) may include authentication mechanisms that verify the
source of data received by it as destination. Such measures may include “challengeresponse”
mechanisms.
In one preferred embodiment, a Integrated Infrastructure Facilities Implementation
device (200) includes GPS functionality to self-determine its location and include this
feature in its reports.
Optional features include the ability of a Integrated Infrastructure Facilities
Implementation device (200) to recognize and report on external threats to its integrity.
This ability is enabled by incorporation of unauthorized proximity sensors and accessauthentication
mechanisms in the unit.
Several embodiments are possible for the power source for the Integrated Infrastructure
Facilities Implementation device (200) including autonomous power units, as well as
common power sources that powers the host mobile communication base station.

We claim:
1. A cellular base station comprising:
- a cellular base transceiver station(Node-B); and
- an integrated infrastructure facility device operatively coupled to said cellular
base transceiver(Node-B) for utilizing the cellular network to communicate
with the remote monitoring stations for each of the infrastructure facilities
provided by said device.
2. A cellular base station as claimed in claim 1 wherein said the integrated
infrastructure facility device comprises video surveillance and air-pollution
monitoring infrastructure facilities.
3. A cellular base station as claimed in claim 1 wherein said the integrated
infrastructure device includes public transport surveillance infrastructure facility.