Ground direction of aircraft datalinks

• US 10,380,899 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2016
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Kirk, James Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Yang, James J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lau, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US15/264,549
• Publication Number:
  US 20180075756A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,064 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18508 with satellite system used as relay, i.e. aeronautical mobile satellite service
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels

Abstract

A system and method for ground-to-air communications with an aircraft are provided. The system comprises a ground-to-air communications manager that is configured to analyze incoming data from one or more data sources to determine at least a location and flight mode of an aircraft; and assess outgoing data to be sent to the aircraft based on one or more characteristics of the outgoing data, the location and flight mode of the aircraft, and one or more datalink characteristics. The ground-to-air communications manager selects an outgoing datalink and timing of transmit for the outgoing data according to a best result, which is determined from balancing the one or more characteristics of the outgoing data, the location and flight mode of the aircraft, and the one or more datalink characteristics. The ground-to-air communications manager transmits the outgoing data to the aircraft over the selected outgoing datalink at the selected timing of transmit.

Claims

1. A system for ground-to-air communications, the system comprising:

a ground-to-air communications manager that includes at least one processer operative to execute processor readable instructions that comprise steps to;

analyze, at the ground-to-air communications manager, incoming data from one or more data sources to determine at least a location and flight mode of an aircraft, wherein the incoming data from the one or more data sources comprises aircraft logistics data, data from a map update data source, aircraft logistics information, data from a weather update data source, or air traffic control update messages;

assess, at the ground-to-air communications manager, outgoing data to be sent to the aircraft based on one or more characteristics of the outgoing data, the location and flight mode of the aircraft, and one or more datalink characteristics;

select an outgoing datalink of the ground-to-air communications manager and timing of transmit for the outgoing data according to a best result algorithm, wherein the best result algorithm;

balances the one or more characteristics of the outgoing data, the location and flight mode of the aircraft, and the one or more datalink characteristics, and

determines the outgoing datalink for the flight mode that serves the aircraft and the outgoing data;

transmit a schedule request to the aircraft, over an operative datalink of the aircraft, to schedule the outgoing datalink to be operative on the aircraft at the selected timing of transmit; and

transmit the outgoing data to the aircraft over the selected outgoing datalink at the selected timing of transmit.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the incoming data from the one or more data sources further comprises aircraft location data.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the incoming data from the one or more data sources further comprises aircraft phase of flight, aircraft source and destination, aircraft position in a flightpath, or known delays at a destination.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more characteristics of the outgoing data comprises urgency of the outgoing data, size of the outgoing data, transmission time of the outgoing data, useful life of the outgoing data, criticality of the outgoing data, freshness of the outgoing data, or priority of the outgoing data.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more datalink characteristics comprises cost to transmit the outgoing data over a given datalink, transmit time of the outgoing data over a given datalink, datalinks available on the aircraft, datalinks available at a destination, datalinks available at any given aircraft phase of flight, or properties of all available datalinks.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the ground-to-air communications manager is located in an aircraft ground data support center.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected outgoing datalink operatively communicates with one or more aircraft communications services comprising a safety services satellite communications (SATCOM) infrastructure, a non-safety services SATCOM infrastructure, air-to-ground cellular services, Internet services for a gate or hanger Wi-Fi, an aircraft cellular modem infrastructure, or an ACARS service.

8. A method for ground-to-air communications with an aircraft, the method comprising:

receiving incoming data from one or more data sources at a ground-to-air communications manager that includes at least one processor;

analyzing the incoming data, by the at least one processor, to determine at least a location and flight mode of the aircraft;

assessing, by the at least one processor, outgoing data to be sent to the aircraft from the ground-to-air communications manager, the assessing of the outgoing data based on one or more characteristics of the outgoing data, the location and flight mode of the aircraft, and one or more datalink characteristics, wherein the one or more characteristics of the outgoing data comprises urgency of the outgoing data, transmission time of the outgoing data, useful life of the outgoing data, criticality of the outgoing data, freshness of the outgoing data, or priority of the outgoing data;

selecting an outgoing datalink of the ground-to-air communications manager and timing of transmit for the outgoing data according to a best result algorithm, wherein the best result algorithm;

balances the one or more characteristics of the outgoing data, the location and flight mode of the aircraft, and the one or more datalink characteristics, and

determines the outgoing datalink for the flight mode that serves the aircraft and the outgoing data;

transmitting a schedule request to the aircraft, over an operative datalink of the aircraft, to schedule the outgoing datalink to be operative on the aircraft at the selected timing of transmit; and

transmitting the outgoing data, from the ground-to-air communications manager to the aircraft, over the selected outgoing datalink at the selected timing of transmit.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the incoming data from the one or more data sources comprises aircraft location data, aircraft logistics data, data from a map update data source, aircraft logistics information, data from a weather update data source, or air traffic control update messages.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the incoming data from the one or more data sources further comprises aircraft phase of flight, aircraft source and destination, aircraft position in a flightpath, or known delays at a destination.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more characteristics of the outgoing data further comprises size of the outgoing data.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more datalink characteristics comprises cost to transmit the outgoing data over a given datalink, transmit time of the outgoing data over a given datalink, datalinks available on the aircraft, datalinks available at a destination, datalinks available at any given aircraft phase of flight, or properties of all available datalinks.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the selected outgoing datalink operatively communicates with one or more aircraft communications services comprising a safety services satellite communications (SATCOM) infrastructure, a non-safety services SATCOM infrastructure, air-to-ground cellular services, Internet services for a gate or hanger Wi-Fi, an aircraft cellular modem infrastructure, or an ACARS service.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the aircraft includes corresponding onboard equipment configured to receive data from the one or more aircraft communications services.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the onboard equipment comprises safety services SATCOM avionics, non-safety services SATCOM avionics, air-to-ground cellular services avionics, a gate or hanger Wi-Fi, a cellular modem, or ACARS equipment.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the onboard equipment is in operative communication with an onboard aircraft communications manager and servers, which in turn operatively communicate with one or more onboard avionics systems.

17. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon executable by a processor to perform a method comprising;

analyzing incoming data from one or more data sources to determine at least a location and flight mode of an aircraft, wherein the incoming data from the one or more data sources comprises aircraft logistics data, data from a map update data source, aircraft logistics information, data from a weather update data source, or air traffic control update messages;

assessing outgoing data to be sent to the aircraft based on one or more characteristics of the outgoing data, the location and flight mode of the aircraft, and one or more datalink characteristics;

selecting an outgoing datalink and timing of transmit for the outgoing data according to a best result algorithm, wherein the best result algorithm;

balances the one or more characteristics of the outgoing data, the location and flight mode of the aircraft, and the one or more datalink characteristics, and

determines the outgoing datalink for the flight mode that serves the aircraft and the outgoing data;

transmitting a schedule request to the aircraft, over an operative datalink of the aircraft, to schedule the outgoing datalink to be operative on the aircraft at the selected timing of transmit; and

transmitting the outgoing data to the aircraft over the selected outgoing datalink at the selected timing of transmit.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the incoming data from the one or more data sources further comprises aircraft location data.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the one or more characteristics of the outgoing data comprises urgency of the outgoing data, size of the outgoing data, transmission time of the outgoing data, useful life of the outgoing data, criticality of the outgoing data, freshness of the outgoing data, or priority of the outgoing data.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the one or more datalink characteristics comprises cost to transmit the outgoing data over a given datalink, transmit time of the outgoing data over a given datalink, datalinks available on the aircraft, datalinks available at a destination, datalinks available at any given aircraft phase of flight, or properties of all available datalinks.