USE OF DATA LINKS FOR AERONAUTICAL PURPOSES WITHOUT COMPROMISING SAFETY AND SECURITY

• US 20090133112A1
• Filed: 10/17/2008
• Published: 05/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Judd, Thomas D., Olive, Michael L., Kauffman, Donald C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,850,552 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0739 in a data processing system embedded in automotive or aircraft systems
• 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: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00

Abstract

A method of ensuring secure and cost effective communication of aeronautical data to and from an aircraft is provided. The method includes uplinking air-ground aircraft data communications via an aeronautical safety data link and downlinking air-ground aircraft data communications via a consumer data link separated from the aeronautical safety data link by a one-way firewall.

Claims

1. A method of ensuring secure and cost effective communication of aeronautical data to and from an aircraft, the method comprising:

uplinking air-ground aircraft data communications via an aeronautical safety data link; and

downlinking air-ground aircraft data communications via a consumer data link separated from the aeronautical safety data link by a one-way firewall.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein downlinking air-ground aircraft data communications via the consumer data link comprises:

implementing downlink routing protocols to unidirectionally output safety/security data from a closed domain of the aircraft through the one-way firewall.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein uplinking air-ground aircraft data communications via the aeronautical safety data link comprises:

uplinking message acknowledgements of the safety/security data received at ground systems from the closed domain of the aircraft via the aeronautical safety data link.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

outputting cabin-crew data from a private domain of the aircraft; and

outputting passenger data from a public domain of the aircraft, wherein the safety/security data, at least one of at least a portion of the cabin-crew data, and at least a portion of the passenger data is transmitted from the aircraft via the consumer data link, wherein the cabin-crew data and the passenger data are prevented from entering the closed domain by the one-way firewall.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the consumer data link is a first consumer data link, the method further comprising:

transmitting at least one of another portion of the cabin-crew data and another portion of the passenger data via at least one other consumer data link.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein uplinking air-ground aircraft data communications via an aeronautical safety data link comprises:

uplinking safety/security data via the aeronautical safety data link to the closed domain.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein uplinking safety/security data via the aeronautical safety data link to the closed domain comprises implementing uplink routing protocol in an aeronautical safety data link router in ground systems to send safety/security data to the closed domain.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

uplinking passenger data via the consumer data link to at least one of a private domain and a public domain.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

routing internal aircraft data communications between crew devices within a private domain via an information system, wherein the internal aircraft data communications are prevented from entering the closed domain by the one-way firewall.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inspecting data traffic received at the one-way firewall;

passing data received from the closed domain of the aircraft based on the inspecting;

denying throughput to data received from a private domain of the aircraft based on the inspecting; and

denying throughput to data received from a public domain of the aircraft based on the inspecting.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a size of a message to be downlinked from a closed domain in the aircraft is less than a minimum threhold size; and

downlinking the message having a size less than the minimum threhold size from the closed domain via the aeronautical safety data link.

12. An aeronautical communication system comprising:

an avionics communications management function configured to execute downlink routing protocols to send safety/security data from a closed domain of the aircraft to ground systems via a consumer data link, the avionics communications management function further configured to execute uplinking routing protocols to receive safety/security data at the closed domain via an aeronautical safety data link; and

a one-way firewall communicatively coupled to pass the safety/security data output from the closed domain, the one-way firewall configured to prevent data from entering the closed domain, when the data is at least one of uplinked on the consumer data link to a private domain, and uplinked on the consumer data link to a public domain.

13. The aeronautical communication system of claim 12, further comprising:

ground systems including,

a consumer data link router configured to receive the safety/security data output from the closed domain via the consumer data link,

a ground communications peer communicatively coupled to the consumer data link router, and

an aeronautical safety data link router communicatively coupled to the ground communications peer, the aeronautical safety data link router configured to send safety/security data to the avionics communications management function via the aeronautical safety data link.

14. The aeronautical communication system of claim 12, wherein the consumer data link is further configured to send at least one of passenger data from a public domain of the aircraft to the ground systems and cabin-crew data from a private domain of the aircraft to the ground systems, wherein the one-way firewall prevents cabin-crew data and passenger data from entering the closed domain.

15. The aeronautical communication system of claim 12, wherein the consumer data link is a broad band consumer data link.

16. The aeronautical communication system of claim 12, further comprising:

a memory to store non-time critical messages on the aircraft until the aircraft accesses a lowest cost data link.

17. An aeronautical communication system comprising:

ground systems including,

a consumer data link router configured to receive via a consumer data link the safety/security data output from a closed domain in an aircraft via a consumer data link,

a ground communications peer communicatively coupled to the consumer data link router, the ground communications peer configured to send consumer data to at least one of a private domain and a public domain in the aircraft via the consumer data link, and

an aeronautical safety data link router communicatively coupled to the ground communications peer, the aeronautical safety data link router configured to send safety/security data to an avionics communications management function in the closed domain of the aircraft via an aeronautical safety data link.

18. The aeronautical communication system of claim 17, further comprising:

the avionics communications management function in the aircraft configured to execute downlink routing protocols to output safety/security data from the closed domain of the aircraft via the consumer data link and configured to execute uplinking routing protocols to receive safety/security data at the closed domain via the aeronautical safety data link; and

a one-way firewall communicatively coupled to receive the safety/security data output from the closed domain, the one-way firewall configured to prevent data from entering the closed domain, when the data is at least one of uplinked on the consumer data link to the private domain, and uplinked on the consumer data link to the public domain.

19. The aeronautical communication system of claim 18, wherein the one-way firewall is further configured to prevent internal aircraft data communications sent between crew devices within the private domain from entering the closed domain.

20. The aeronautical communication system of claim 18, wherein the one-way firewall is further configured to prevent cabin-crew data and passenger data from entering the closed domain.