METHOD AND DEVICE FOR TRANSMITTING GEOGRAPHICAL DATA ON AN AIRCRAFT

• US 20120041951A1
• Filed: 08/04/2008
• Published: 02/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Inventors: Sauvalle, Thomas, Peyrucain, Eric, Bourdais, André
• Granted Patent: US 8,335,790 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/36 Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/005 Flight directors indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32

Abstract

The invention relates to a device (1) for transmitting to a user system (3) geographical data that is stored, using a unit-surface sorting, in the database (4) of a provider system (2).

Claims

1. A method of transmitting geographical data between at least one provider system (2) and at least one user system (3) that are on board an aircraft,

comprising of:

A/ in a preliminary step;

an overall geographical area relating to all of said geographical data and corresponding to at least a part of the globe is subdivided into a plurality of unitary areas, that are separate geographical areas, the combination of which covers all of said overall geographical area;

for each of said unitary areas, the geographical data relating to a unitary area is grouped together into a plurality of different groups, each of which comprises the geographical data relating to at least one particular characteristic likely to be used in a flight of the aircraft, said groups being formed such that all of said geographical data are taken into account; and

said geographical data are stored in an ordered manner in at least one database (4) of said provider system (2), by creating a classification based on unitary areas and, in each unitary area, a subclassification by groups, each group comprising the corresponding geographical data; and

B/ in a subsequent step;

a) when the user system (3) wants to obtain particular geographical data, it sends a request via a data transmission link (10) to said provider system (2), said request making it possible to identify at least one unitary area and also making it possible, for each identified unitary area, to identify at least one group;

b) when such a request is received by said provider system (2), the latter searches in said database (4) for the geographical data that are located in all of the groups identified in the request, and this is done for all of the unitary areas also identified in this request; and

c) said provider system (2) transmits said geographical information, for each identified unitary area, and for each unitary area per identified group, to said user system (3) via said data transmission link (10).

2. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein each unitary area is a substantially rectangular area, a first side of which has a length corresponding to a predetermined latitude value and of which a second side adjacent to this first side has a length corresponding to a predetermined longitude value.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said overall geographical area is subdivided into unitary areas, according to at least one of the following sets of characteristics:

state boundaries;

time zones;

air traffic control areas.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the transmission of geographical data relates to a set of unitary areas making it possible to cover a corridor of predetermined width along a flight plan.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4,

wherein said unitary areas are transmitted, in succession, according to their geographical position along the flight plan, in the direction corresponding to the flight of the aircraft following this flight plan.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the transmission of geographical data relates to an area of predetermined size that is situated around the current position of the aircraft.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein the transmission of geographical data relates to airports likely to be involved in a flight of the aircraft.

8. A device for transmitting geographical data between at least one provider system (2) and at least one user system (3) that are on board an aircraft, said device (1) comprising said provider system (2) and said user system (3),

wherein:

said provider system (2) comprises at least one database (4), in which said geographical data are stored in an ordered fashion using at least one classification by unitary areas and, within each unitary area, a subclassification by groups, said unitary areas being geographical areas that are separate and the combination of which covers an overall geographical area relating to all of said geographical data and corresponding to at least a part of the globe, each of said groups comprising the geographical data relating to at least one particular characteristic likely to be used in a flight of the aircraft, and said groups being formed such that all of said geographical data are taken into account;

said user system (3) comprises means (5) capable of sending a request in order to obtain geographical data, said request making it possible to identify at least one unitary area and also making it possible, for each identified unitary area, to identify at least one group;

said provider system (2) also comprises;

means (12) for searching in the database (4) for the geographical data that are located in all of the groups identified in a received request, and do so for all of the unitary areas also identified in this request; and

means (8) for sending said geographical data, per identified unitary area, and for each unitary area, per identified group; and

said device (1) also comprises at least one data transmission link (10), that is capable of transmitting a request from the user system (3) to the provider system (2) and that is capable of transmitting geographical data from the provider system (2) to the user system (3).

9. The device as claimed in claim 8,

wherein said provider system (2) is a database server.

10. An aircraft,

comprising of a device (1) such as that specified claim 8.